Kiyoshi Atsumi
Actor
Biography
Kiyoshi Atsumi (渥美 清 Atsumi Kiyoshi), born Yasuo Tadokoro (田所 康雄 Tadokoro Yasuo, 10 March 1928 in Tokyo – 4 August 1996 in Tokyo), was a Japanese film actor. He started his career in 1951 as a comedian at a strip-show theater in Asakusa. After two years of fighting pulmonary tuberculosis, he made his debut on TV in 1956 and on film in 1957. His vivid performance of a lovable, innocent man in a film “Dear Mr. Emperor” (Haikei Tenno-Heika-Sama) in 1963 established his reputation as an actor.
Later he became the star of the highly popular Tora-san series of films, from the original Otoko wa Tsurai yo (translated in English as 'It's Tough being a Man') in 1969 to the 48th film released in 1995, the year before his death.
The enduring success of the series made him synonymous with the Tora-san character, and many Japanese regarded his death as the death of Tora-san, not the death of Yasuo Tadokoro or Kiyoshi Atsumi.
Filmography
The Castle of Sand
as Movie Theater Manager 1974
The Yellow Handkerchief
as Watanabe Kacho 1977
A Distant Cry from Spring
as Kondo 1980
Tora-san, Our Lovable Tramp
as Torajirô Kuruma 1969
The Man Without a Map
as Tashiro 1968
Where Spring Comes Late
as Traveler 1970
Village of Eight Gravestones
as Kosuke Kindaichi 1977
Tora-san's Cherished Mother
as Torajiro Kuruma 1969
Home from the Sea
as Matsushita 1972
The Village
1975
Downtown Heroes
1988
Final Take: The Golden Age of Movies
as Kihachi 1986
Tora-san Loves an Artist
1973
Tora-san's Forget Me Not
as Torajiro Kuruma 1973
Tora-san, His Tender Love
as Torajiro Kuruma 1970
Tora-san's Runaway
as Torajiro Kuruma 1970