Frankie Sakai

Frankie Sakai
フランキー堺
Frankie Sakai in 1956
Born	Masatoshi Sakai (堺 正俊, Sakai Masatoshi) (1929-02-13)13 February 1929 Kagoshima, Kagoshima, Japan
Died	10 June 1996(1996-06-10) (aged 67) Japan
Occupation(s)	Film actor, comedian, musician
Years active	1953–1996

Frankie Sakai (フランキー堺, Furankī Sakai) (13 February 1929 – 10 June 1996) was a Japanese comedian, actor, and musician.

From his days at Keio University, Sakai worked as a jazz drummer at American Army camps during the Occupation of Japan, often doing comic routines with his music.^[1] Becoming a professional comedian, he appeared in many famous film comedies such as Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate and the Shachō and Ekimae series at the Toho Studios. He was named best actor at the Blue Ribbon Awards for his work in Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate and Shiawase wa orera no negai.^[2]

He also appeared in musicals such as Kimi mo shusse ga dekiru, serious dramas such as I Want to Be a Shellfish, and kaiju eiga like Mothra. He was also known for his personal study of the ukiyo-e artist Sharaku^[1] and helped produce the film Sharaku directed by Masahiro Shinoda. He is best known to American audiences for his dramatic role in the 1980s television production of Shōgun in which he played the part of Lord Yabu.

He died of liver failure on 10 June 1996 at the age of 67.

• Taikōki (1965)
• Shōgun (1980) - Lord Kashigi Yabu, Daimyo of Izu
• Onna Taikōki (1981) - Tokugawa Ieyasu
• Taiheiki (1991) - Nagasaki Enki

• Medal with Purple Ribbon (1994)

• Frankie Sakai at IMDb
• Frankie Sakai at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)