Native name 片岡 千恵蔵 Occupation Film actor Name Chiezo Kataoka Died March 31, 1983 Children Yoshiharu Ueki, Chie Ueki | Nationality Japanese Years active 1912–1983 Role Film actor Spouse Kimie Ueki (m. ?–1983) | |
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Movies Singing Lovebirds, Ako Roshi, Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji, The Shogun Assassins, Dai‑bosatsu toge Similar People Utaemon Ichikawa, Sadatsugu Matsuda, Tomu Uchida, Denjiro Okochi, Masahiro Makino | ||
Chiezō Kataoka (片岡 千恵蔵, Kataoka Chiezō) (March 30, 1903 – March 31, 1983) was a Japanese film and television actor most famous for his starring roles in jidaigeki.
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Career
Born in 1903 in Gunma Prefecture (his real name was Masayoshi Ueki), he was raised in Tokyo. As a child he began training in Kabuki in a theatre troupe run by Kataoka Nizaemon XI, and appeared in one film in 1923. He eventually entered the movie world for good in 1927 first at Makino Productions, but following the lead of other former Makino stars like Tsumasaburō Bandō, Chiezō started his own independent production company, Chiezō Productions, the next year. That studio became the longest lasting of the independent, star-centered productions, in part because it had such talented directors as Mansaku Itami and Hiroshi Inagaki, and produced such masterworks as Akanishi Kakita. He folded the company in 1937 and joined Nikkatsu.
Specializing in jidaigeki, he played the lead in various films before and during World War II. During the Occupation of Japan, however, when Allied censors restricted the production of jidaigeki, Chiezō also appeared in a series of eleven films as Bannai Tarao, a modern era detective who is a master of disguise. He eventually joined Toei, where he also served on the board of directors. Among his starring roles for Toei were six films in which he played Tōyama no Kin-san and a three-part Daibosatsu Tōge. Another role was in Akō Rōshi, a drama based on the Forty-seven Ronin. Later, he portrayed the father of Ōoka Tadasuke in the television series Ōoka Echizen. His career spanned six decades.
Family
His son, Yoshiharu Ueki, a former pilot, was named the president of Japan Airlines in January 2012.