Bunta Sugawara

Bunta Sugawara
Born	(1933-08-16)August 16, 1933 Sendai, Empire of Japan
Died	November 28, 2014(2014-11-28) (aged 81) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1956–2012
Children	3

Bunta Sugawara (Japanese: 菅原 文太, Hepburn: Sugawara Bunta, August 16, 1933 – November 28, 2014) was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 200 feature films. Dropping out of Waseda University, he worked as a model before entering the film industry in 1956. After years of work, Sugawara finally established himself as a famous actor at the age of 39, with the lead role of Shozo Hirono in the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series (1973–1976) of yakuza films.^[1] He quickly found additional success starring as the truck driver Momojiro Hoshi in the comedic Torakku Yarō series (1975–1979).^[1] In 1980, Sugawara won the Japan Academy Prize for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a detective in the satirical Taiyō o Nusunda Otoko (1979).