Image: Wikimedia CommonsIsao Kimura
Japanese actor (1923-1981)
- Born June 22, 1923
- 4 movies
Isao Kimura (22 June 1923 to 4 July 1981) was a Japanese stage and film actor, born in Hiroshima, who appeared in more than 100 films. He is best remembered for his work with Akira Kurosawa, above all as Katsushiro, the youngest of the warriors in Seven Samurai (1954). He also worked for Mikio Naruse, Tadashi Imai and Yoshishige Yoshida, and remained committed to theatre throughout, joining the Haiyuza company in 1946 and later co-founding the Youth Actor Club with Eiji Okada and Nobuo Kaneko.
Isao Kimura appears in 4 films in The Rerun, from 1949 to 1963. Most of that work is in drama, crime and thriller. Frequent collaborators in The Rerun: Akira Kurosawa (4), Toshiro Mifune (4), Takashi Shimura (4), Minoru Chiaki (4), Tatsuya Nakadai (2).
Known for
- Seven Samurai (1954). Part of the ensemble of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai film.
- Stray Dog (1949). An early collaboration with Kurosawa on the 1949 crime drama.
- Throne of Blood (1957). A role in Kurosawa’s 1957 adaptation of Macbeth.
- High and Low (1963). Appeared in Kurosawa’s 1963 kidnapping thriller.
Career
Kimura’s first major Kurosawa role was Yusa, the desperate young veteran whose stolen gun drives the plot of Stray Dog (1949). He had a small role as an intern in Ikiru (1952) before Seven Samurai made him the face of youthful idealism: Katsushiro, a well-born apprentice who attaches himself to the masterless samurai and falls in love with a farmer’s daughter.
The partnership continued with a phantom samurai in Throne of Blood (1957) and Detective Arai in High and Low (1963). He worked for Naruse on Summer Clouds (1958), played the husband in Anzukko (1958) and Hon’iden Matahachi in Miyamoto Musashi (1961), then the detective Kogoro Akechi in Kinji Fukasaku’s Black Lizard (1968). He also made numerous television appearances.
Where to start
- Seven Samurai (1954): his signature role, as the story’s romantic heart.
- Stray Dog (1949): a sympathetic villain in Kurosawa’s postwar Tokyo noir.
- High and Low (1963): one of the dogged detectives in Kurosawa’s kidnapping procedural.
- Throne of Blood (1957): a brief, eerie appearance in the Macbeth adaptation.
Movies
Quick answers
- What movies and TV shows has Isao Kimura been in?
- Isao Kimura appears in High and Low (1963), Throne of Blood (1957), Seven Samurai (1954) and Stray Dog (1949) on The Remote.
- When was Isao Kimura born?
- Isao Kimura was born on 22 June 1923.
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