Tatsuya Nakadai, an icon of Japanese cinema, has died at 92

"Tatsuya Nakadai, a veteran Japanese actor best known for films such as Ran, High and Low and Harakiri, died on Saturday at the age of 92. His collaborations with some of the greatest directors in Japan cemented him as an icon of the "Golden Age" of Japanese cinema. He died from pneumonia, according to a statement from Mumeijuku, the acting school and theater company that Nakadai founded."

"Nakadai began his career as a theater actor, and remained committed to the stage throughout his life in part because, unlike many actors at the time, he declined to sign an exclusive contract with a film studio. Doing so also gave him freedom to take on different roles in samurai epics, realist dramas, crime thrillers, and even science fiction and work with many different directors over the course of his career."

"After a brief cameo in Akira Kurosawa's 1954 movie Seven Samurai, the film that also happens to be the actor's most revered internationally, he played the lead in Masaki Kobayashi's trilogy The Human Condition (19591961). The series stars Nakadai as a pacifist soldier in World War II-era Japan. He credited much of his success to Kobayashi, whom he regarded as a mentor."

Tatsuya Nakadai died at 92 from pneumonia. Mumeijuku, the acting school and theater company he founded, announced his death. He began his career in theatre and remained committed to the stage, declining an exclusive film-studio contract to preserve artistic freedom. That freedom allowed him to play varied roles in samurai epics, realist dramas, crime thrillers, and science fiction and to work with many directors. After a brief cameo in Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, he led Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition trilogy as a pacifist soldier. He credited Kobayashi as a mentor and later starred in Yojimbo, High and Low, and the stylized Harakiri.

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