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
Home from the Sea
as Matsushita 1972
The Village
1975
Downtown Heroes
1988
Tora-san's Cherished Mother
as Torajiro Kuruma 1969
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