Kō_Nishimura
Kō Nishimura
Japanese actor (1923–1997)
Kō Nishimura (西村 晃, Nishimura Kō, 25 January 1923 – 15 April 1997) was a Japanese actor.
Known in the West primarily for supporting roles in such films as Akira Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well and Yojimbo, Kihachi Okamoto's Sword of Doom, Yoshitaro Nomura's Zero Focus, and Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp, Nishimura also played leading roles throughout his career. He is sometimes known as Akira Nishimura, as the kanji character 晃 can be translated as either Akira or Kō.
The son of biologist and inventor Makoto Nishimura, Nishimura made his film debut in the Shin Saburi film Fusetsu Nijyunen in 1951.[1] He won the Blue Ribbon Awards for best supporting actor in 1964 for Unholy Desire directed by Shohei Imamura.[2] In 1982, he won the Best Actor award in the Mainichi Film Awards for his performances in Matagi.[2]
In Japan, Nishimura is well known for playing the role of the title character in the long-running television jidaigeki series Mito Kōmon from 1983 to 1992.[2] He also portrayed the voice of the "Mamo/Howard Lockewood" in the original Japanese version of anime film The Mystery of Mamo in 1978.
In July 2019, Tokyo's Cinemavera Shibuya honored him with a film festival celebrating both Nishimura and Yūnosuke Itō, another popular character actor who attained high status in Japan's entertainment industry.[3]
