Yosuke Natsuki

Yosuke Natsuki

Original Name 夏木 陽介
Birth Name Tamotsu Akuzawa (阿久沢 有)
Born February 27, 1936
Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan
Died January 14, 2018 (81)

Handsome actor and known automobile enthusiast. Natsuki joined Toho in 1958, and made his first on-screen appearance as one of the witnesses in the first scene of The H-Man that same year. He garnered leading roles across a variety of films, including sci-fi, war movies, period dramas, salaryman comedies, and teen films. In 1965 he appeared in the first of a series of high school dramas on TV. When Toho’s contract system dissolved in the early 70s, Natsuki migrated to Mifune Productions.

In 1984, Natsuki was chosen to replace an ailing Akihiko Hirata as the scientist in The Return of Godzilla. He returned to the genre again many years later in a cameo in Monster X Strikes Back (2008). Natsuki is best known to genre fans for playing detectives in both Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster and Dogora, the Space Monster (both 1964). He also played the wayward farmer’s son in Yojimbo (1961), who aligns with one of the town’s gangs… and who Toshiro Mifune frightens back home at the end of the film.

Natsuki passed away in 2018 from skin cancer.

Original Name 夏木 陽介
Birth Name Tamotsu Akuzawa (阿久沢 有)
Born February 27, 1936
Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan
Died January 14, 2018 (81)

Handsome actor and known automobile enthusiast. Natsuki joined Toho in 1958, and made his first on-screen appearance as one of the witnesses in the first scene of The H-Man that same year. He garnered leading roles across a variety of films, including sci-fi, war movies, period dramas, salaryman comedies, and teen films. In 1965 he appeared in the first of a series of high school dramas on TV. When Toho’s contract system dissolved in the early 70s, Natsuki migrated to Mifune Productions.

In 1984, Natsuki was chosen to replace an ailing Akihiko Hirata as the scientist in The Return of Godzilla. He returned to the genre again many years later in a cameo in Monster X Strikes Back (2008). Natsuki is best known to genre fans for playing detectives in both Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster and Dogora, the Space Monster (both 1964). He also played the wayward farmer’s son in Yojimbo (1961), who aligns with one of the town’s gangs… and who Toshiro Mifune frightens back home at the end of the film.

Natsuki passed away in 2018 from skin cancer.