Toshirō Mifune

Biography

Toshiro Mifune (Seito, China, 1920 - Mitaka, Tokyo, 1997) was a Japanese actor and producer whose screen presence made him one of the central figures of postwar Japanese cinema. He is best known for his sixteen films with Akira Kurosawa, many of them samurai dramas. His rough, sometimes comic warriors, often masterless ronin, helped shape the wandering-warrior archetype that Western cinema would later borrow.

Born on 1 April 1920 in Seito, in Japanese-occupied Shandong, he was the eldest son of Tokuzo and Sen Mifune, both of Japanese origin. His father was a merchant and photographer who ran a photography business, and young Mifune worked in his studio. During the Second World War he served in the Imperial Japanese Army's aerial photography unit, a posting that came from his knowledge of cameras. After the war he worked as a camera assistant at Toho.

His move into acting was almost accidental. A friend submitted his photograph to a new-faces audition without his knowledge, and although he did not win the competition, the director Kajiro Yamamoto noticed him and recommended him to Senkichi Taniguchi, who cast him in the comedy Shin Baka Jidai (1947). The following year he met Kurosawa during another talent search at Toho. Kurosawa was struck by the young man's intensity, and their partnership produced Rashomon (1950), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957) and Yojimbo (1961). Mifune's characters were often coarse and wry, and Kurosawa reportedly said he could convey in three feet of film an emotion that an average Japanese actor needed ten feet to express.

In the early 1960s the partnership cooled, strained by Kurosawa's demanding shoots and by the money problems that followed Mifune's decision to set up his own production company. Red Beard (1965) became their last film together. That same year Mifune won the Volpi Cup at Venice for Yojimbo and again for Red Beard. He also worked with Hiroshi Inagaki on the Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956) and on twenty films in total with the director.

His international reach came with Animas Trujano (1961), directed in Mexico by Ismael Rodriguez after the death of Pedro Infante. Mifune learned his lines in Spanish, but his heavy accent led to his voice being dubbed by Narciso Busquets in the final cut. The film became the second Mexican production nominated for an Academy Award, and it also received a Golden Globe nomination. He later starred in Grand Prix (1966), his Hollywood debut, and appeared in Hell in the Pacific (1968), Red Sun (1971) and Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979). On television he played Lord Toranaga in the miniseries Shogun (1980).

He retired in 1992 for health reasons and died on 24 December 1997, aged 77, in a hospital in Mitaka. His legacy lives on through his influence on action and Western cinema, his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2016, and the documentary Mifune: The Last Samurai (2015), which covers his life and films.

Key films

• Rashomon (1950), a bandit caught up in the conflicting accounts of a murder.
• Seven Samurai (1954), a rough, wry warrior who helps defend a village.
• Yojimbo (1961), a nameless ronin who plays two rival clans against each other.
• Throne of Blood (1957), Kurosawa's version of Macbeth, with Mifune as an ambitious feudal lord.
• Red Beard (1965), a doctor at a charity clinic and his last film with Kurosawa.