Happy 80th Birthday Tatsuya Nakadai

Motohisa Nakadai was born on December 13, 1932 in Tokyo, Japan. Known to film fans all over the world as Tatsuya Nakadai he became one of a handful of Japanese actors well known outside Japan. Nakadai was working as a clerk in a Tokyo shop when director Masaki Kobayashi discovered him and cast him in “Kabe atsuki heya” (1953). Nakadai was then cast in the lead role in Kobayashi's monumental trilogy “Ningen no joken” and became a star whose international acclaim rivaled that of countryman Toshirô Mifune. Like Mifune, Nakadai worked frequently with director Akira Kurosawa and eventually replaced Mifune as Kurosawa's principal leading man after the well-known falling out between Mifune and Kurosawa. His appearances for Kurosawa in “Kagemusha” (1980) and “Ran” (1985) are among the most indelible in the director's filmography. Tatsuya appeared in one Euro-western as Elfego in “Today We Kill… Tomorrow We Die! (1968) along with Montgomery Ford (Brett Halsey). Today we celebrate Tasuya Nakadai’s 80^th birthday.