Japanese veteran actor Seizo Fukumoto died of lung cancer at his home on January 1, at the age of 77. For more than 50 years, Fukumoto has played the role of a dragon set who was hacked and killed. He has received about 50,000 bentos in various dramas. He is known as the “man who has been hacked 50,000 times.”
The Sponichi Annex of Japan reported that Fukumoto Sei San had confessed before his death that he had already handled a funeral where only relatives attended.
Fukumoto Seizo, whose real name is Hashimoto Seizo, was born in 1943 in Hyogo Prefecture. After graduating from middle school, he worked for a period of time in a grain store run by his relatives, and then joined the Toei Kyoto Photography Studio in 1959. Since his 20s, he has played a supporting role as a hacked dragon.
Since Fukumoto started his filming, he has performed almost all period dramas produced by Toei Kyoto Photography, as well as the chopped dragon characters in works other than Toei, including the 1978 TV period drama “The Conspiracy of the Yagyu Clan”, and the 1982 movie “Iga Ninfa Taku” “, and the 2002 American actor Tom. The Hollywood movie “The Last Samurai” starring Cruise.
Fukumoto retired from Toei in 2003, but continued to work as an actor as a special staff member. In 2006, he performed the role that was chopped off in the NHK Dahe drama “The Crossroads of Fame”.
Because of his legendary career, Fukumoto was starred in the movie “Under the Light of Tai Qin” for the first time in 2014, and played “a veteran actor who focuses on performing hacked roles” in the play.
Japan’s ORICON NEWS reported that Fukumoto’s film won the Best Actor Award at the 18th Fantasia International Film Festival in Canada, and this is the first time a Japanese has won this award.
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