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Japanese actor Tetsuro Tamba, one of Japan’s most famous and prolific actors, died of pneumonia late Sunday evening at the age of 84. Born in Tokyo in 1922, Tamba became a translator for allied occupation forces after Japan's defeat in WWII. He made his film debut in 1952, and continued to appear in over 300 feature films and dozens of television dramas. Tamba is possibly best known in the West for his role as Tiger Tanaka in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967), but appeared in many classics and genre films such as Hideo Gosha’s Three Outlaw Samurai, Shohei Imamura’s Pigs And Battleships, Masaki Kobayashi’s Harakiri And Kwaidan, Kinji Fukasaku’s Black Lizard and Under The Flag Of The Rising Sun, and Teruo Ishii’s Abashiri Prison. Tamba remained active in the industry, with recent roles in Yoji Yamada’s Oscar-nominated The Twilight Samurai, cult director Takashi Miike’s The Happiness Of The Katakuris, Graveyard of Honor & Gozu, and lifelong friend Teruo Ishii's Jigoku, Screwed & Blind Beast Vs. Killer Dwarf. His lead role in the TV series G-Men '75 is one of his best known in his native Japan, but he also won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1981’s The Battle Of Port Arthur, which also starred Toshiro Mifune. Tamba advocated the existence of a "spiritual world" after death, so perhaps he's relaxing someplace nice, having a beer with Teruo Ishii right now.

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