Yamamura Sô

Eloquent, stately, late-blooming actor, who didn't get into film until he was 36 years old. Yamamura Sô's role in Ozu Yasujirô's The Munekata Sisters (1950) won him a Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor. He even tried his hand at directing, supervising no less than four films from 1953 through 1960. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s he was extremely prolific in television. He was the spokesperson for Toyota Crown luxury cars from 1967 through 1983.

Yamamura spoke fluent English and was cast in a few high-profile American-produced films, including John Huston's The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958, starring John Wayne) and Ron Howard's Gung Ho (1986, starring Michael Keaton). He also starred as Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku in the Japanese portions of Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). Speaking of WWII films, Yamamura portrayed Admiral Yonai Mitsumasa on two separate occasions, in Japan's Longest Day (1967) and The Militarists (1970).

He appeared in at least three sci-fi films—The Last War (1961), Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974), and Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)—each time playing the Prime Minister of Japan.