Hiroyuki Sanada
CountryJapan 
GenderMale
BirthdayOct 12, 1960
BiographyHiroyuki Sanada OBE (真田 広之, Sanada Hiroyuki, né Shimozawa; 12 October 1960) is a Japanese actor. He has received numerous accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Hochi Film Awards, two Japan Academy Film Prizes, a Mainichi Film Award, three Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Actor, four Kinema Junpo Awards, and honors from the Yokohama Film Festival. In 2018, he received the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon from the Japanese government for his "artistic developments, improvements, and accomplishments".
He began his career in the mid-1960s at the age of five, and was the protégé of actor Sonny Chiba. A black belt in Kyokushin Karate, he initially gained prominence for his roles in Japanese and Hong Kong action films, later establishing himself as a dramatic actor. He is best known to international audiences for his roles as Ryuji Takayama in Ring (1998) where he played alongside Nanako Matsushima, who was also his co-star in a 1997 television drama A Story of Love. His role as the Fool in a production of the Shakespeare play King Lear (1999–2000) gave him theatrical attention, and led to his appointment as an Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2002. Beginning in the 2000s, Sanada grew his Hollywood presence with such roles as Seibei Iguchi in The Twilight Samurai (2002), Ujio in The Last Samurai (2003), and Kenji in Rush Hour 3 (2007).
Sanada's appearances in Hollywood films include Sunshine (2007), Speed Racer (2008), The Wolverine, 47 Ronin (both 2013), Minions (2015), Life (2017), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Army of the Dead (2021), as Hanzo Hasashi / Scorpion in Mortal Kombat (2021), in Bullet Train (2022), and John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023). He also had recurring roles on Lost (2010) and the HBO series Westworld (2018–2020). Sanada gained acclaim for his role in the FX historical drama series Shōgun (2024) as Yoshii Toranaga, the titular character, a fictionalized version of Tokugawa Ieyasu, which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He also received the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for his role as a producer.
Biography from the Wikipedia article Hiroyuki Sanada. Licensed under CC-BY-SA. Full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
He began his career in the mid-1960s at the age of five, and was the protégé of actor Sonny Chiba. A black belt in Kyokushin Karate, he initially gained prominence for his roles in Japanese and Hong Kong action films, later establishing himself as a dramatic actor. He is best known to international audiences for his roles as Ryuji Takayama in Ring (1998) where he played alongside Nanako Matsushima, who was also his co-star in a 1997 television drama A Story of Love. His role as the Fool in a production of the Shakespeare play King Lear (1999–2000) gave him theatrical attention, and led to his appointment as an Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2002. Beginning in the 2000s, Sanada grew his Hollywood presence with such roles as Seibei Iguchi in The Twilight Samurai (2002), Ujio in The Last Samurai (2003), and Kenji in Rush Hour 3 (2007).
Sanada's appearances in Hollywood films include Sunshine (2007), Speed Racer (2008), The Wolverine, 47 Ronin (both 2013), Minions (2015), Life (2017), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Army of the Dead (2021), as Hanzo Hasashi / Scorpion in Mortal Kombat (2021), in Bullet Train (2022), and John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023). He also had recurring roles on Lost (2010) and the HBO series Westworld (2018–2020). Sanada gained acclaim for his role in the FX historical drama series Shōgun (2024) as Yoshii Toranaga, the titular character, a fictionalized version of Tokugawa Ieyasu, which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He also received the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for his role as a producer.
Biography from the Wikipedia article Hiroyuki Sanada. Licensed under CC-BY-SA. Full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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