Sonny Chiba - Biography

Last Editor: tonkpils				Sonny Chiba Biography -   Name : Sonny Chiba Profession : Actor

Sonny Chiba Trivia -

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Sonny Chiba Detailed Biography -

Sonny Chiba, real name Shin'ichi Chiba (�葉 真一 Chiba Shin'ichi, born January 23, 1939 in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan) is an actor. He is one of the most intense action film stars of all time. He was hailed by Quentin Tarantino as "the greatest actor to ever work in martial arts films." Sonny Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience. Born Sadao Maeda in Fukuoka, Japan, he was the second of five children in the family of a military test pilot. As a boy he manifested an interest in both theater and gymnastics, and he was serious enough about the latter to earn a place on the Japanese Olympic team in his late teens, until he was sidelined by a back injury. While he was a university student, he began studying martial arts with the renowned World Karate Grand Master Masatatsu "Mas" Oyama, leading to his becoming a first degree black belt. Sometime around 1960 (the dates are uncertain, because it is possible that he had television appearances to his credit as early as 1959) he was discovered in a talent search by the Toei film studio, and he began his screen career soon after, under the name Shinichi Chiba. Over the next decade, he was cast primarily in crime thrillers. He also changed his name to Sonny Chiba, initially because of his association with a Toyota advertising campaign for a car called the Sunny-S. Sonny Chiba as Takuma Tsurugi in The Street Fighter. By 1969, he had started his own training school for actors aspiring to work in martial arts films, and in 1973, in the wake of the international craze for such films started by Bruce Lee, he returned to the screen himself as an actor. Chiba's breakthrough international hit was The Street Fighter (1974), which established him as the reigning Japanese martial arts actor in international cinema for the next two decades. His subsequent hits included such pictures as Bullet Train (1975), Karate Warriors (1976), Doberman Cop (1977), and The Assassin (1977). He also occasionally returned to the science fiction genre, in movies such as Message From Space (1978). Chiba was even busier in the 1980s, doing dozens of movies as well as making forays into television, and with roles in such high profile adventures as The Storm Riders (1998) his fame in Japan remained unabated into the 1990s. In his fifties, the actor resumed working under the name Shinichi Chiba when he served as a choreographer of martial arts sequences. At the dawn of the 21st century, Chiba was as busy as ever in feature films and also starring in his own series in Japan. Sonny Chiba, circa 2003 Roles in Takashi Miike's Deadly Outlaw: Rekka and directors Kenta and Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale II effectively bridged the gap between modern day and yesteryear cinematic cult legend, Chiba's enduring onscreen career received a fitting tribute when he appeared in a key role in director Quentin Tarantino's bloody revenge epic Kill Bill in 2003. Sonny Chiba has starred in more than 125 films for Toei Studios and has won numerous awards in Japan for his acting. He has black belts in several martial arts, including a 4TH-DAN BLACKBELT IN Ninjutsu, 2ND-DAN GOJURYU, 2ND-DAN BLACKBELT IN JUDO, 1ST DAN BLACKBELT IN KENDO, and, a 1ST-DAN BLACKBELT IN SHORINJI KEMPO and is founder of the Japanese Action Club (JAC), that aims to raise the level of martial arts techniques in Japanese film and television. He lives in Los Angeles, in the United States with his second wife, and is the father of martial arts actor Juri (Julie) Manase from his first marriage to Japanese actress Yoko Nogiwa.