Biography
Sonny Chiba, also credited as Shinichi Chiba and Sadaho Maeda, was a Japanese actor and martial artist. Born in Fukuoka on 23 January 1939, he competed in sports including baseball, volleyball and gymnastics before studying martial arts at university and earning a black belt in Kyokushin Karate in 1965.
Chiba began his screen career in the 1960s with roles in tokusatsu superhero series. He rose to prominence in Japan with the lead role in The Street Fighter (1974) and its 1974 sequel, and later appeared in English-language films including Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) as Hattori Hanzo, and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006).
Chiba died in Tokyo on 19 August 2021, aged 82, from complications of COVID-19.
