Celebrity Photo

Takashi Shimura

Highest Rated: 100% Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjûrô) (1963)

Lowest Rated: 60% Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Birthday: Mar 12, 1905

Birthplace: Ikuno, Hyogo, Japan

Whenever asked to name his favorite actors, Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa would cite, with reservations, the unpredictable Toshiro Mifune--then would lavish unqualified praise upon Takashi Shimura. After a long stage career, Shimura made his first film in 1935. Eight years later, he worked for Kurosawa for the first time in Sanshiro Sugata (1943), going on to appear in virtually all of the director's films until 1965. Shimura was seen as the firewood peddler in Rashomon (1950), the dying civil-servant protagonist in Ikiru (1952), samurai leader Kambei in Seven Samurai (1954), the old general in The Hidden Fortress (1957), and in equally weighty roles in Throne of Blood (1957), The Bad Sleep Well (1960), Yojimbo (1961) and Red Beard (1965). Curiously, Shimura was never under contract to Kurosawa; instead, the actor was a "hired hand" at Japan's Toho Studios, accepting whatever role he was ordered to play. This explains why, in the midst of so many Kurosawa classics, Takashi Shimura was just as frequently seen in Japanese horror pictures, most famously as the kindly Dr. Yamana in Godzilla (1954).

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Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

Movies

Credit
No Score Yet Akanishi Kakita (Capricious Young Man) Actor — 2010
No Score Yet The Most Beautiful (Ichiban utsukushiku) Factory production head — 1988
88% Kagemusha Gyobu Taguchi — 1980
No Score Yet Otoko wa tsurai yo (Am I Trying) (It's Tough Being a Man) (Tora-san Our Lovable Tramp) Actor — 1974
No Score Yet Zatoichi's Conspiracy (Zatoichi at the Blood Fest) Sakubei — 1974
No Score Yet Otoko wa tsurai yo (It's Tough Being a Man) (Am I Trying) Actor — 1969
No Score Yet Japan's Longest Day Information Chief — 1968
No Score Yet Frankenstein Conquers the World Hiroshima — 1966
73% Red Beard Tokubei Izumiya — 1965
No Score Yet Samurai Assassin Actor — 1965
89% Kaidan (Kwaidan) (Ghost Stories) Priest — 1964
75% Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (San daikaijû: Chikyû saidai no kessen) Dr. Tsukamoto — 1964
No Score Yet Gorath Dr. Kensuke Sonoda — 1964
95% High and Low (Tengoku to jigoku) Director — 1963
No Score Yet Chushingura Hyobe Chishaka — 1963
95% Stray Dog (Nora inu) Sato — 1963
100% Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjûrô) Kurofuji — 1963
70% Hakuchi (The Idiot) Ono — 1963
100% The Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru (The Bad Sleep Well) Moriyama — 1962
No Score Yet Yosei Gorasu (Gorath) (Astronaut 1980) Actor — 1962
95% Yojimbo Tokuemon — 1961
75% Mothra News Editor — 1961
No Score Yet I Bombed Pearl Harbor Tosaku — 1961
No Score Yet Karakkaze Yarô (Afraid to Die) Actor — 1960
No Score Yet Mysterians Dr. Adachi — 1959
97% The Hidden Fortress (kakushi-toride No San-akunin) The Old General — 1958
No Score Yet Loyal 47 Ronin Jyubei Otake — 1958
95% Throne of Blood Noriyasu Odagura — 1957
100% Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai) Kambei — 1956
83% Godzilla, King of the Monsters! Dr. Kyohei Yamane — 1956
100% Ikiru Kanji Wantanabe — 1956
No Score Yet Miyamoto Musashi Kanketsuhen: Kettô Ganryûjima (Samurai III: Duel on Ganryu Island) (Bushido) Court Official — 1956
75% I Live in Fear (Ikimono no kiroku) Actor — 1955
60% Godzilla Raids Again Dr. Kyohei Yamane — 1955
93% Godzilla (Gojira) Dr. Kyohei Yamane $2.8K 1954
100% The Life of Oharu (Saikaku ichidai onna) Old Man — 1952
No Score Yet Araki Mataemon: Kettô kagiya no tsuji (Vendetta Of A Samurai) Actor — 1952
98% Rashômon Firewood Dealer — 1951
86% Scandal (Shubun) Hiruta — 1950
No Score Yet Shizukanaru ketto (The Quiet Duel) (A Silent Duel) Konosuie Fujisaki — 1949
93% Drunken Angel Doctor Sanada — 1948
No Score Yet Snow Trail (Ginrei no hate) Actor — 1947
100% No Regrets for Our Youth Chief of Police — 1946
88% The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (Tora no o wo fumu otokotachi) Kataoka — 1945
60% Sugata Sanshiro (Judo Saga) (Judo Story) Hansuke Murai — 1943

QUOTES FROM Takashi Shimura CHARACTERS

Dr. Kyohei Yamane says: If we keep conducting nuclear bomb tests, it is possible that another Godzilla may appear somewhere in the world.

Kambei leader of samurai says: This is the nature of war. By protecting others, you save yourselves.

Kanji Watanabe says: life is brief. fall in love, maidens before the crimson bloom fades from your lips before the tides of passion cool within you, for those of you who know no tomorrow

Kanji Watanabe says: Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens. Before the crimson bloom. Fades from your lips. Before the tides of passion. Cool within you, For those of you. Who know no tomorrow.

Kambei leader of samurai says: "So. Again we are defeated. The farmers have won. Not us."

Kambei leader of samurai says: So. Again we are defeated. The farmers have won. Not us.

Kambei leader of samurai says: Danger always strikes when everything seems fine.