Biography
Kōji Mitsui (also credited as Hideo Mitsui or Mitsui Hideo) was a Japanese actor. Born Hikohide Mitsui in Yokohama in 1910, he joined the Shochiku studio in 1924 while a student and made his film debut in 1925 under the stage name Hideo Mitsui.
He appeared in more than 150 films between 1925 and 1975, initially in youthful roles in silent and early sound pictures, including several directed by Yasujirō Ozu. After the war he changed his stage name to Kōji Mitsui in 1948 and became a noted supporting actor in films by Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. His performance as Yoshisaburō the gambler in Kurosawa's The Lower Depths (1957) won him Best Supporting Actor awards at the Mainichi Film Awards and Blue Ribbon Awards.
Mitsui's later credits include Floating Weeds (1959), in which he was cast in the role of Kichinosuke, High and Low (1963), Woman in the Dunes (1964) and Red Beard (1965). He worked in television and on stage after going freelance, and died in Kamakura in 1979.
