Sonny Chiba, Martial Arts Film Legend, Dies At 82

Sonny Chiba, the Japanese actor who gained international fame within the martial arts film genre, passed away at the age of 82 from complications related to COVID-19.

Rise To Fame: Sadaho Maeda in Fukuoka, Japan, on Jan. 22, 1939, he began his martial arts education at the Nippon Sports Science University in 1957 under the instruction of karate master Masutatsu “Mas” Oyama. Chiba would earn his first-degree black belt in 1965 and received a fourth-degree black belt in 1984; he also black belts in ninjutsu, shorinji kempo, judo, kendo and goju-ryu karate.

In 1960, he was spotted by a talent scout for Japan’s Toei film studio, which signed him to a contract renamed him Shinichi Chiba. He was initially cast in crime thrillers that weren't seen outside of Japan, and international audiences first saw Chiba as star of the 1961 low-budget science-fiction film “Invasion of the Neptune Men.” Chiba continued to star in Japanese films and became a favorite with local audiences.

He was reintroduced to international audiences with the 1974 martial arts thriller “The Street Fighter,” which had the distinction of becoming the first film to receive an X-rating in the U.S. strictly for its violent content. New World Pictures, the U.S. distributor, renamed the actor Sonny Chiba for American audiences, and he would retain the name for the English-language versions of his films.

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A Cross-Generation Cult Favorite: During the 1970s, when martial arts films were at the peak of box-office popularity, many of Chiba’s films gained worldwide audiences “Karate Warriors” (1976), “Doberman Cop” (1977) and “Golgo 13” (1977). He also starred in the notorious “Message from Space,” (1978), the science-fiction adventure that received harsh reviews as a cheaply-made effort to cash in on the popularity of “Star Wars.”

Chiba focused almost exclusively on Japanese-made films, with his latest film "Bond of Justice: Kizuna" completed prior to his death. He only occasionally ventured into English-language films, although most of these works were not among his most memorable performances: the 1992 “Aces: Iron Eagle III” co-starring Louis Gossett Jr., the 1994 “Immortal Combat” co-starring Roddy Piper and the 2006 “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” the lowest-grossing film in the long-running franchise.

However, Chiba was back on the global film radar again with Quentin Tarantino’s 2004 film “Kill Bill Volume 1” as Hattori Hanzo, the retired swordsman and sushi restaurant owner who creates the blade used by Uma Thurman’s character. At the time of his death, Chiba was scheduled to appear in “Outbreak Z” co-starring Wesley Snipes and Jesse Ventura.

Photo: Sonny Chiba in "Kill Bill Volume 1," courtesy of Miramax.