Known for his roles in Kill Bill and Fast & Furious Tokyo Drift, actor Sonny Chiba died Thursday from complications of COVID-19, reports Variety.
The fourth degree black belt played in action films and TV for five decades beginning in 1960.
In Kill Bill, Volume 1 he played Hattori Hanzo, a retired swordsman and in Fast & Furious, he starred as a Yakuza boss.
Among his biggest fans, Keanu Reeves who singled out Shiba while promoting John Wick in 2014, according to SyFy.
“Character and action, you brought together,” Reeves said to Chiba. “Very tough … There was always heart to them. You would mix them, you know?”
NPR reports in appeared in what was billed as the “first ever x-rated fight scenes in screen history” in the international release of The Street Fighter.
Born in Fukuoka, Japan as Sadaho Maeda on Jan. 22, 1939, he learned martial arts studying under karate master Masutatsu “Mas” Oyama.
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our new Instagram account. Go to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff, or submitting a story or making a contribution.
