Kunie Tanaka
Biography
Kunie Tanaka (田中 邦衛 Tanaka Kunie, November 23, 1932 - March 24, 2021) was a Japanese actor. He had his first notable role in 1960 as a thug in Akira Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well, and worked with the director again on Sanjuro. Tanaka is well known for his roles in Kinji Fukasaku's yakuza films, namely the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series. He also appeared in Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan.
He has been nominated for five Japanese Academy Awards, winning the Best Supporting Actor statuette for Gakko in 1993. He appeared as the lecherous Shinjiro Ishiyama, nicknamed Aodaishō, the antagonist of the hero, played by Yūzō Kayama, in all of the Wakadaishō series of films. The character Kizaru, from Eiichiro Oda's manga series One Piece, is modeled after Tanaka.
Ask the Vault
Ask anything about Kunie Tanaka.
Full filmography
- Kita no kuni kara (1981) as Goru Kuroita (黑板五郎)
- Submersion of Japan (1974) as Tatsuno
- Kwaidan (1965) as Yasaku (segment "Hoichi the Earless")
- Rice Curry (1986)
- Sanjuro (1962) as Samurai
- The Shin Hasegawa Series (1972) as 蛙ヶ池の仙太
- May Love Be Restored (1980) as Yugiri-ro client
- Hacchōbori Torimono Banashi (1993)
- The Sun in Kurobe (2009) as Genkichi
- The Bullet Train (1975) as Koga's Brother
- The Password is Courage (2000)
- Older brother (1977) as Kintaro
- The Face of Another (1966) as Mentally Ill Man #1
- The Bad Sleep Well (1960) as Hitman
- The Sword of Doom (1966) as Senkichi
- Demon (1985) as Keita
- The Inferno (1979) as Unpei Ikegata
- The Nagasaki Crime Chronicles (1975) as Yoshitoshi Kogure
- Station (1981) as Sugawara
- The Battle of Okinawa (1971)
- Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973) as Masakichi Makihara
- Dodes'ka-den (1970) as Hatsutaro Kawaguchi
- 世界で一番熱い夏 (2001)
- Private Detective Dobu (1991)