Legendary Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai died in Japan on November 8th at the age of 92. Born Motohisa Nakadai on December 13, 1932, in Tokyo, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors in the history of Japanese cinema. Nakadai worked with some of Japan's best-known filmmakers. He was featured in 11 films directed by Masaki Kobayashi, including “The Human Condition” trilogy, wherein he starred as the lead character Kaji, plus “Harakiri”, “Samurai Rebellion” and “Kwaidan”. He starred or co-starred in five films directed by Akira Kurosawa (perhaps most notably as the main character in “Ran”) as well as being cast in significant films directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara “The Face of Another”, Mikio Naruse “When a Woman Ascends the Stairs”, Kihachi Okamoto “Kill!” and “The Sword of Doom”, Hideo Gosha “Goyokin”, Shirō Toyoda “Portrait of Hell” and Kon Ichikawa “Enjō and Odd". He also played the American educated gun toting samurai in "Yojimbo" and the sequel "Sanjuro both in 1961. His portrayals were the inspiration for the Gian Maria Volonte characters in the Dollar films. Naka appeared in only one Spaghetti western as James Elfego in 1967's "Today We Kill... Tomorrow We Die! He also portrayed Rentaro Katsu in the Japanese produced western "East Meets West" in 1995.
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