Kō Nishimura

Kō Nishimura (西村 晃, Nishimura Kō, 25 January 1923 – 15 April 1997) was a Japanese actor.

Known in the West primarily for supporting roles in such films as Akira Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well and Yojimbo , Kihachi Okamoto's Sword of Doom , Yoshitaro Nomura's Zero Focus , and Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp , Nishimura also played leading roles throughout his career. He is sometimes known as Akira Nishimura, as the kanji character 晃 can be translated as either Akira or Kō.

The son of biologist and inventor Makoto Nishimura, Nishimura made his film debut in the Shin Saburi film Fusetsu Nijyunen in 1951.^[1] He won the Blue Ribbon Awards for best supporting actor in 1964 for Unholy Desire directed by Shohei Imamura.^[2] In 1982, he won the Best Actor award in the Mainichi Film Awards for his performances in Matagi.^[2]

In Japan, Nishimura is well known for playing the role of the title character in the long-running television jidaigeki series Mito Kōmon from 1983 to 1992.^[2] He also portrayed the voice of the "Mamo/Howard Lockewood" in the original Japanese version of anime film The Mystery of Mamo in 1978.

In July 2019, Tokyo's Cinemavera Shibuya honored him with a film festival celebrating both Nishimura and Yūnosuke Itō, another popular character actor who attained high status in Japan's entertainment industry.^[3]

• The Burmese Harp (1956)
• Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (1957)
• Umi no Yarōdomo (1957) as Mekkachi
• Arashi no naka o tsuppashire (1958)
• The Ballad of Narayama (1958)
• Kurenai no Tsubasa (1958) as Mizutani Tetsuji
• Ballad of the Cart (1959)
• The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
• Mutekiga Ore o Yondeiru (1960)
• Zero Focus (1961)
• Yojimbo (1961)
• Burari Bura-bura Monogatari (1962)
• Gorath (1962) as Murata, Minister of Space
• High and Low (1963)
• Rickshaw Man (1963 version)
• Bushido, Samurai Saga (1963)
• Attack Squadron! (1963)
• Unholy Desire (1964)
• Kunoichi Keshō (1964)
• Sleepy Eyes of Death 5: Sword of Fire (1965)
• Ninpō-chushingura (1965)
• House of Terrors (1965) as the Hunchback^{[4] [5]}
• The Threat (1966) as Kawanishi^[6]
• The Sword of Doom (1966) as Shichibei^[7]
• The Dancing Girl of Izu (1967 Toho version)
• Zatoichi the Outlaw (1967)
• Black Lizard (1968)
• The Living Skeleton (1968)
• Black Rose Mansion (1969)
• The Wild Sea (1969)
• Zatoichi, The Festival of Fire (1970)
• Men and War Part II (1971)^[8]
• Hanzo The Razor: Sword of Justice (1972)
• Lady Snowblood (1973)
• Tsugaru Folk Song (1973)
• Hanzo The Razor: The Snare (1973)
• Karei-naru Ichizoku (1974)
• Hanzo The Razor: Who's Got the Gold (1974)
• New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Boss's Head (1975)
• Hokuriku Proxy War (1977) as Mr. Yasuhara
• The Incident (1978)
• Ogin-sama (1978)
• The Strangling (1979)
• Nomugi Pass (1979)
• Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (1988) as Makoto Nishimura
• 47 Ronin (1994) as Kira Yoshinaka

• Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo (1978) as Mamo/Howard Lockewood
• Nutcracker Fantasy (1979) as Uncle Drosselmeyer, Puppeteer, Street Singer, Watchmaker

• Serpico (1977 TV Asahi edition) as Captain McClain (Biff McGuire)

• Quiz Derby

• Medal with Purple Ribbon (1987)
• Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette (1994)

• Kō Nishimura at IMDb

• 1923 births
• 1997 deaths
• Actors from Sapporo
• Japanese male film actors
• 20th-century Japanese male actors
• Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon
• Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class
• Japanese screen actor stubs
• Japanese film biography stubs

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