Actor

Sonny Chiba

Acting

Career Snapshot

Explained

These indicators come from TMDB. They are relative signals, not review ratings.

Acting credits

227

Prolific

Very extensive acting filmography.

TMDB popularity

1.7

Low visibility

TMDB internal trend index. Higher usually means more searches and page activity now.

Movies: 207Series: 23Crew credits: 8

TMDB ID: 2537

IMDb ID: nm0002002

Known for: Acting

Born: January 23, 1939

Died: August 19, 2021

Age: 82

Place of birth: Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

Gender: Male

Adult content flag: No

Career span: 1959 - 2024

Years active: 66

Average TMDB rating: 6.18

Wikidata: Q351732

Also known as

Shinichi Chiba • Sadaho Maeda • Sonny Chiba

Other jobs

Action Director (2)Director (2)Fight Choreographer (1)Producer (1)Thanks (1)Writer (1)

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Biography

Sonny Chiba (born January 23, 1939 - August 19, 2021), also known as Shin'ichi Chiba, was a Japanese actor and martial artist. 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 in Fukuoka, Chiba played a variety of sports in high school, including baseball and volleyball. He also practiced gymnastics and participated at the National Sports Festival of Japan in his third year. When he was a university student, he learned martial arts, earning a black belt in Kyokushin Karate in 1965 and later receiving a fourth degree in 1984. Chiba's career began in the 1960s, when he starred in two tokusatsu superhero shows. In his first role, he replaced Susumu Wajima as the main character Kōtarō Ran/Seven Color Mask in Seven Color Mask (Nana-iro Kamen) in the second half of the series. However, his breakthrough role was in the 1974 film The Street Fighter. Before retiring, Chiba had also appeared in a number of English language American films, including Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Fast & Furious 3: Tokyo Drift (2006). Chiba died of COVID-19 complications at the hospital in Tokyo on 19 August 2021, at the age of 82.