Ken Takakura, the Japanese actor best known to western audiences for his role as Michael Douglas' unlikely partner Masahiro in Ridley Scott's crime thriller Black Rain, has died at the age of 83.
The BBC reports that his passing at a Tokyo hospital on November 10 was announced today, Tuesday November 18.
Dubbed "Japan's Clint Eastwood", Takakura also starred opposite Robert Mitchum in another acclaimed crime thriller, The Yakuza, and Tom Selleck in the Fred Schepisi comedy Mr Baseball.
His many Japanese screen credits included Abashiri Prison, The Yellow Handkerchief, The Railway Man and Chinese director Zhang Yimou's Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles.
