Akira Kubo
Akira Kubo is a Japanese actor.
Biography
Born on December 1, 1936 in Tokyo, Akira Kubo made his acting debut in 1952 for director Seiji Maruyama in the youth film Adolescence. Kubo first worked with genre specialist director Ishiro Honda the next year in Adolescence Part II and the war drama Farwell Rabaul (1954). Kubo soon became a very popular young star after appearing in director Senkichi Taniguchi's The Sound of Waves (1954), based on the novel by Yukio Mishima, and he also appeared in films by noted directors, such as Shiro Toyoda's The Grass Whistle (1955) and Mikio Naruse's A Whistle in my Heart (1957).
Kubo appeared in many period dramas throughout his career, including Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (1957) and Sanjuro (1962) as well as Hiroshi Inagaki's Chushingura (1962) and Wirlwind (1964) -- and war films such as Seiji Maruyama's Retreat From Kiska (1965) and Battle of Japan Sea (1969).
As one of Toho`s stable of young, popular thespians, Kubo's was cast as restless and determined young heroes, as the amesiatic astronaut "Tatsuo Kanai" in Ishiro Honda's GORATH (1962), the tourtured "Kenji Murai" in Matango (1963); nerdy "Tetsuo Torii" in Monster Zero (1965), the photo-journalist Goro Maki in Son of Godzilla (1967), the no-nonsense SY-3 captain "Katsuo Yamabe" in Destroy All Monsters (1968) and combat journalist "Taro Kudo" in Yog: Monster from Space (1970).
Kubo continues to act, and has most recently appeared in Hiroshi Teshigahara's Rikiyu (1989), Koreyoshi Kurahara's Hiroshima (1995) and Yutaka Osawa's I Love You (1999). Kubo returned to the kaiju eiga in a cameo, as the captain of a nuclear transport ship, in Shusuke Kaneko's Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995). The first time Kubo appeared in the United States was at one of the Godzillafest events.
Kaiju Filmography
- Gorath (1962) as Tatsuma Kanai, Cadet Astronaut
- Matango (1963) as Professor Kenji Murai
- Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) as Tetsuo Teri
- Ultra Q (TV 1966) as Yûzô (1 episode)
- Son of Godzilla (1967) as Goro Maki
- Destroy All Monsters (1968) as SY-3 Captain Katsuo Yamabe
- Space Amoeba (1970) as Taro Kudo
- Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995) as Captain of the Kairyumaru
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