Personal details
Official sites :
Born:
- Birthday: 1939-01-23
- Born Place: Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
Deathday:
2021-08-19
Also Known As:
Синъити Тиба, Shinichi Chiba, Sadaho Maeda, Sonny Chiba
Sonny Chiba
Sonny Chiba (real name Sadaho Maeda; later also known as Shinichi Chiba) was a legendary Japanese actor and martial artist who achieved global stardom through his prolific career in action films, spanning over five decades. Born on January 22, 1939, in Fukuoka, Japan, he was a highly trained martial artist, holding black belts in multiple disciplines, including a 4th Dan in Kyokushin Karate. He rose to prominence in Japan during the 1960s and 70s, but became an international cult icon for his brutally realistic and intensely violent role as the mercenary Takuma Tsurugi in the seminal 1974 film The Street Fighter, which was one of the first films to receive an X-rating in the US solely for its violence. This film and its sequels cemented his reputation and heavily influenced filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino.Chiba's late-career resurgence introduced him to a new generation of Western audiences. He notably played Hattori Hanzō in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Volume 2 (2004), a role that paid homage to his earlier work playing a descendant of the real-life samurai in the Shadow Warriors TV series. He also appeared in Hollywood films like The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006). He was also the founder of the Japan Action Club (JAC), a training school for martial arts actors and stunt performers. Sonny Chiba passed away on August 19, 2021, at the age of 82, due to complications from COVID-19.
