Sonny Chiba born January 23 1939 August 19 2021 also known as Shinichi Chiba was a Japanese actor and martial artist Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts initially in Japan and later before an international audience Born in Fukuoka Chiba played a variety of sports in high school including baseball and volleyball He also practiced gymnastics and participated at the National Sports Festival of Japan in his third year When he was a university student he learned martial arts earning a black belt in Kyokushin Karate in 1965 and later receiving a fourth degree in 1984 Chibas career began in the 1960s when he starred in two tokusatsu superhero shows In his first role he replaced Susumu Wajima as the main character Kōtarō RanSeven Color Mask in Seven Color Mask Nanairo Kamen in the second half of the series However his breakthrough role was in the 1974 film The Street Fighter Before retiring Chiba had also appeared in a number of English language American films including Kill Bill Volume 1 2003 and Fast Furious 3 Tokyo Drift 2006 Chiba died of COVID19 complications at the hospital in Tokyo on 19 August 2021 at the age of 82 Description above from the Wikipedia article Sonny Chiba licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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