Biography
Eiji Funakoshi (船越 英二) was a Japanese actor. Born Eijirō Funakoshi on 17 March 1923 in Tokyo, he signed with the Daiei Motion Picture Company in 1947 and made his film debut the following year in Beautiful Enemy. His career spanned three decades and included work with directors such as Kōzaburō Yoshimura, Mikio Naruse, Kon Ichikawa and Yasuzō Masumura.
Funakoshi received the Kinema Junpo Award for Best Actor and the Mainichi Film Concours for Best Actor for his leading performance as Private Tamura in Ichikawa’s Fires on the Plain (1959). He appeared in An Actor's Revenge (1963) as Heima Kadokura, Manji (1964) as Kotaro Kakiuchi, and the Gamera films as Dr. Hidaka (1965) and Dr. Shiga (1969). He also portrayed Tanokura Magobei in the television series Abarenbō Shōgun. Funakoshi died on 17 March 2007. His son Eiichirō Funakoshi is also an actor.
