Ken Ogata

Ken Ogata 緒形拳
Born	Akinobu Ogata July 20, 1937(1937-07-20) Tokyo, Kantō region, Japan
Died	October 5, 2008(2008-10-05) (aged 71) Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1960–2008
Awards	Japan Academy Prize Best Actor 1979 The Demon 1984 The Ballad of Narayama 1987 House on Fire

Ken Ogata (緒形拳 Ogata Ken, 20 July 1937-5 October 2008) was a Japanese actor.

Ogata was born in Tokyo, Japan. Ogata is well known for his roles in Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book, Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and Shohei Imamura's The Ballad of Narayama. He won the award for best actor at the 26th Blue Ribbon Awards for Okinawan Boys.^[1]

In television, his starring role as Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1965 NHK Taiga drama Taikōki catapulted him to fame. Ken went on to many prominent roles in subsequent programs. The following year, he portrayed Benkei in Minamoto no Yoshitsune. The network tapped him again for the role of Fujiwara no Sumitomo in the 1976 Kaze to Kumo to Niji to. He returned to playing Hideyoshi in the 1978 Ōgon no Hibi, and returned to the lead as Ōishi Kuranosuke in Tōge no Gunzō, the 1982 Chūshingura. Another featured appearance in a Taiga drama was in Taiheiki (1991, as Ashikaga Sadauji, father of Takauji).

Mr. Ogata died on October 5, 2008, just days after finishing his role in the production of the Fuji TV drama "Kaze no Garden" (Garden of the Winds), filmed in the rural Furano area of northern Japan. In his final role, Ogata, himself 71 years of age, played a doctor involved in the end-of-life care of elderly patients.

His sons Kanta and Naoto Ogata are actors. NHK selected Naoto for the starring role of Oda Nobunaga in the 1992 Taiga drama Nobunaga King of Zipangu; Kanta played Inaba Masakatsu in Aoi Tokugawa Sandai (2000).

Filmography

• Castle of Sand (1974)
• The Demon (1978)
• Vengeance Is Mine (1979)
• Samurai Reincarnation (1981)
• Yaju-deka (1982)
• The Ballad of Narayama (1983)
• Okinawan Boys (1983)
• Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
• House on Fire (1986)
• Zegen (1987)
• Shogun's Shadow (1989)
• Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman (1989)
• The Pillow Book (1996)
• Man Walking on Snow (2001)
• The Hidden Blade (2004)
• Love and Honor (2006)

Television

• Boushi - NHK Hiroshima (2008)

References

1. ^ "ブルーリボン賞ヒストリー" (in Japanese). Cinema Hochi. http://cinemahochi.yomiuri.co.jp/b_award/1983/. Retrieved 2010-01-21. 

External links

• Ken Ogata at the Internet Movie Database
• Ken Ogata's JMDb Entry (in Japanese)
• Ken Ogata's Blog, hara8bunme (in Japanese)

Persondata
Name	Ogata, Ken
Alternative names	Ogata, Akinobu
Short description	Actor
Date of birth	1937-7-20
Place of birth	Tokyo, Kantō region, Japan
Date of death	2008-10-5
Place of death	Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan