Sonny Chiba

Shinichi Chiba (千葉 真一), known internationally as Sonny Chiba, was a Japanese actor and martial artist.

Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience.

Born in Fukuoka, Chiba played a variety of sports in high school, including baseball and volleyball.

He also practiced gymnastics and participated at the National Sports Festival of Japan in his third year.

Chiba went to the Nippon Sport Science University in 1957.

He was a serious candidate for a place in the Japanese Olympic team in his late teens until he was sidelined by a back injury.

Chiba's career began in the 1960s, when he starred in two tokusatsu superhero shows.

In his first role, he replaced Susumu Wajima as the main character Kōtarō Ran/Seven Color Mask in Seven Color Mask (Nana-iro Kamen) in the second half of the series.

Sometime around 1960, he was discovered in a talent search (called "New Face") by the Toei film studio, and he began his screen career soon after.

The CEO of Toei at the time gave him the stage name "Shinichi Chiba".

His acting career began on television, starring in two tokusatsu superhero shows, first replacing Susumu Wajima as the main character Kōtarō Ran/ Seven Color Mask in Seven Color Mask (Nana-iro kamen) in the second half of the series and then starring as Gorō Narumi/Messenger of Allah in Messenger of Allah (Allah no Shisha).

He starred in the 1961 science fiction movie Invasion of the Neptune Men and the first Kinji Fukasaku film, Drifting Detective: Tragedy in the Red Valley, which marked the beginning of a long series of collaborations for the two.

Over the next decade, he was cast primarily in crime thrillers.

When he was a university student, he learned martial arts, earning a black belt in Kyokushin Karate in 1965 and later receiving a fourth degree in 1984.

While he was a university student, he began studying martial arts with the renowned Kyokushin Karate master Masutatsu "Mas" Oyama (whom he later portrayed in a trilogy of films), which led to a first-degree black belt on 15 October 1965, later receiving a fourth-degree on 20 January 1984.

By 1970, Chiba had started his own training school for aspiring martial arts film actors and stunt performers known as JAC (Japan Action Club), in order to develop the level of martial arts techniques and sequences used in Japanese film and television.

Today the organization is known as Japan Action Enterprise (JAE).

He starred in Karate Kiba (Bodyguard Kiba) in 1973, which was his first martial arts movie.

However, his breakthrough role was in the 1974 film The Street Fighter.

Before retiring, Chiba had also appeared in a number of English language American films, including Kill Bill: Volume 1 and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Chiba died on 19 August 2021, at age 82.

Born Sadaho Maeda (前田 禎穂), he used the stage name "Chiba Shinichi" throughout his professional career.

When New Line Cinema released the film Gekitotsu!

Satsujin ken (激突! 殺人拳) in the United States in 1974, they retitled it The Street Fighter and billed its star as Sonny Chiba.

Later, Chiba modified the name to "JJ Sonny Chiba", wherein the initials stood for "Justice Japan".

Chiba's breakthrough international hit was The Street Fighter (1974) which was brought to Western audiences (dubbed in English) by New Line Cinema.

The film and its sequels established him as the reigning Japanese martial arts actor in international cinema for the next two decades.

It was New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye who gave Chiba the English name "Sonny", which Chiba would adopt as his own (mostly for non-Japanese projects) from that point on.

Chiba's subsequent projects included such pictures as The Bullet Train (1975), Karate Warriors (1976), Doberman Cop (1977), Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon (1977), and The Assassin (1977).

He also occasionally returned to the science fiction genre, in movies such as Message from Space (1978).

He also began to star on some jidaigeki such as Shogun's Samurai (1978), The Fall of Ako Castle (1978), G.I. Samurai (1979), Shadow Warriors (1980), and Samurai Reincarnation (1981).

After appearing in the taiga drama Fūrin Kazan in November 2007, he announced the retirement of the stage name "Shinichi Chiba"; henceforth he was billed "JJ Sonny Chiba" as an actor and Rindō Wachinaga (和千永 倫道) as a film director.

Chiba was born in Fukuoka, the third of five children.

His father was a pilot for the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service; his mother, originally from Kumamoto Prefecture, had competed in track and field in her youth.

When he was four years old, his father was transferred to Kisarazu, Chiba, and the family moved to Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture.

After Chiba went to junior high school in Kimitsu, the physical education teacher advised him to do artistic gymnastics.

He also was passionate about track and field sports, baseball, and volleyball.

He participated in those four sports championships of Chiba Prefecture.

In high school, Chiba dedicated himself to artistic gymnastics and won the National Sports Festival of Japan while in his third year.

He enjoyed watching movies, including Western movies such as Shane and High Noon.