Ken Ogata

Akinobu Ogata (緒形 明伸, Ogata Akinobu; 20 July 1937 – 5 October 2008), better known by his stage name Ken Ogata (緒形 拳, Ogata Ken), was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 50 movies and 25 television series. For his merits and contribution to arts in 2000 received Japan's Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon.

Among many movie awards and nominations, he received three times Japan Academy Film Prize award for Best Actor for The Demon (1978), The Ballad of Narayama (1983) and House on Fire (1986), and in addition Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor for The Catch and Okinawan Boys (1983). Other notable roles were in Shohei Imamura's Vengeance Is Mine (1979), Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book (1996).

Ogata was born on July 20, 1937 in Tokyo, Japan. He started his acting career in 1958 as part of the Shinkokugeki theater troupe.

His movie debut was 1960s Tooi Hitotsu No Michi, but 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). His final appearance in the taiga drama was Fūrin Kazan in 2007. Besides the taiga drama series, Ogata portrayed Fujieda Baian in the Hissatsu series Hissatsu Shikakenin, he reprised the character twice in the film series later.

His last lead role was in A Long Walk (2006). Mr. Ogata died of liver cancer 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).

Ogata was a talented calligrapher and held a public exhibition in 1991. His sons Kanta and Naoto are actors as well.

• The Golden Compass – Iorek Byrnison (2008)

• Medal with Purple Ribbon (2000)
• Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette (2008)