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
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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.