Arizona Tribune - Japanese 'Ran' actor Tatsuya Nakadai dies at 92

Nakadai first rose to fame in Japan and internationally under director Masaki Kobayashi, who cast him in his epic anti-war trilogy "The Human Condition" of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

His acting school, Mumeijuku, did not say when Nakadai died or give any other details.

Nakadai had a walk-on part in Kurosawa's 1954 classic "Seven Samurai" but later effectively replaced Toshiro Mifune as the famed director's go-to leading man after Mifune went his own way.

He was the main protagonist in Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" (1980), which won the Palme d'Or top prize at the Cannes film festival.

The actor also played the doomed warlord who divides his kingdom between his sons in "Ran", Kurosawa's 1985 film based on the Shakespeare play "King Lear".

Nakadai also starred in Kurosawa's 1961 samurai film "Yojimbo" -- with Mifune -- and worked with other directors, including Hiroshi Teshigahara and Kon Ichikawa.

He set up Mumeijuku, a private acting school and troupe, in 1975 together with his late wife, the actor Yasuko Miyazaki, educating younger actors.

One former pupil is Koji Yakusho, who won best actor at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 for his role in Wim Wenders' "Perfect Days".

Nakadai continued acting until recently, performing this year at a theatre in the Noto region that was still reeling from a deadly earthquake on New Year's Day last year.

P.Smith--AT