Hideo Oguni

Highest Rated: 100% Seven Samurai (1954)

Lowest Rated: 55% Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

Birthday: Jul 9, 1904

Birthplace: Aomori, Japan

For more than half a century, prolific screenwriter Hideo Oguni devoted himself to crafting stories that would become some of history's finest and most influential movies. Kicking off his career in the film industry in the early 1930s, the Japanese author mounted a résumé filled with historical gems. Oguni first hit his stride in earnest with a string of collaborations with director Akira Kurosawa and fellow screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto, including "Ikiru" (1952) and "Seven Samurai" (1954). The accomplished writer carried this degree of artistic grandeur through the decades to follow straight up until his much later films, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (1970) and "Ran" (1985). In the interim period, Oguni experimented with drama, action, war films, and science fiction, showcasing unrivaled ingenuity at every turn.