Tanba Tetsuro

Other Name: 丹波哲郎

Age: 102

Birthday: July 17, 1922

Nationality: Japanese

Gender: Male

Tanba Tetsuro was a Japanese actor with a career spanning five decades. He is best known in the West for his role in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice as Tiger Tanaka. By then, he had among other roles appeared in two films by director Kobayashi Masaki: Harakiri and Kwaidan. He also portrayed the lead character in the police dramas Key Hunter and G-Men '75, the latter of which remains his best-known role in Japan. He voiced the "Cat King" in the original Japanese version of the Studio Ghibli anime film The Cat Returns. He had parts in Twilight Samurai and two Miike Takashi films, The Happiness of the Katakuris and Gozu, as well as acting as a spokesperson for the Dai Rei Kai spiritual movement. Tanba's son, Tanba Yoshitaka is also an actor. In February 2005, Tanba was hospitalized for influenza and appendicitis. He lost weight drastically and his health degenerated. On September 24, 2006, he died in Tokyo at the age of 84 of pneumonia. (Source: Wikipedia).