Hiroyuki Sanada

Hiroyuki Sanada MBE (真田 広之, Sanada Hiroyuki?, born October 12, 1960) is a Japanese actor.

Sanada was born Hiroyuki Shimosawa (下澤 廣之, Shimosawa Hiroyuki?) in Tokyo, Japan. He began training with Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club. Originally aiming to be an action star, he developed good all-round martial arts ability. Due to a desire to expand his repertoire beyond action roles and being shocked into reassessing his life after the sudden death of his mother to a stroke in 1989, Sanada left the Japan Action Club and founded his own production company, Libra International. Sanada expanded his roles to include a majority of non-action roles and won acclaim in Japan. He married the Japanese actress Satomi Tezuka in 1990, and the couple had two sons.

In 1995 Sanada was involved in an adulterous affair with Riona Hazuki, with whom he co-starred in Sharaku. The affair, a major entertainment scandal in Japan at the time, ended quickly and resulted in Sanada becoming divorced from his wife in 1997. The scandal derailed Hazuki's career, which has never fully recovered, and Sanada's own career suffered greatly for several years until he was given a part in Ring in 1998. Sanada's careful choice of roles since then has enabled him to distance himself from his scandalous past and reputation as a playboy, to international acclaim.

Sanada was first noticed as a serious actor in the movie Mahjong Hourouki directed by Makoto Wada. Wada and Sanada's relationship is similar to that of John Huston and Humphrey Bogart[citation needed] and since then Sanada has acted in every one of Wada's movies. Those works are filled with a sense of humor and nostalgic attachment for classic movies. He has established himself as a character actor who can play many different roles. Some of his most famous movies are: Tasogare Seibei (The Twilight Samurai), Ring, Kaitou Rubi, and The Last Samurai.

Sanada made an appearance in the 2005 Hollywood film The White Countess directed by James Ivory, and the Chinese film The Promise directed by Chen Kaige. He is known internationally more from The Last Samurai, The White Countess and Sunshine directed by Danny Boyle, but has recently been seen in Rush Hour 3 with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. He also stars in The City of Your Final Destination another James Ivory film, where he plays the younger lover of Anthony Hopkins's character.

Source: Wikipedia