Tazaki Jun

Tazaki Jun (born Tanaka Minoru) was a character actor with a raspy voice, who often played authority figures ranging from police chiefs to military officers.

A hard-working stage actor, Tazaki performed in traveling theater revues throughout World War II, at one point touring the front lines in China. Following the war, he moved between several acting troupes before establishing a home at Toho Studios in 1950. He landed a role in the hit film Sasameyuki starring alongside Tanaka Haruo. To avoid confusing audiences by casting two unrelated actors with the same family name, the studio mandated that Tazaki adopt a stage name. "Tazaki Jun" was chosen as a portmanteau honoring Tanizaki Jun'ichirô, the novelist who penned the original story for the film.

Tazaki increased in popularity with a breakout performance in a low-budget 1951 period drama based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Soon after, he became a dependable character actor, featuring in war films, adventures, and productions for director Kurosawa Akira (such as High and Low). He also became a staple within Toho's science-fiction and kaiju eiga genre boom.

Among genre fans, he is best remembered as the independent Captain Jinguji commanding the flying submarine Gôtengô in Honda Ishirô's Atragon (1963). Further cementing his tokusatsu legacy, he portrayed the brave spaceship captain in the opening of Honda's Gorath (1962), and played the elder lead scientists in both Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) and Destroy All Monsters (1968).

Tazaki passed away from lung cancer in 1985 at the age of seventy-two.