Comedy Beatiful and scared wife in Japan Ken Shimura
Ken Shimura(志村 けん,Shimura Ken) (born Yasunori Shimura(志村 康徳,Shimura Yasunori), February 20, 1950 - 29 March 2020) in Higashimurayama, Tokyo) was a Japanese comedian and actor. He co-starred with Masashi Tashiro, Nobuyoshi Kuwano in the Japanese variety showKen Shimura no Bakatono-sama. The "bakatono-sama" shtick by Shimura is unusual among Japanese comedians, in that he could satirize the deeds of current guardians of the contemporary society (a company president, a politician, a family head, a school principal, the head of a Japanese yakuza gang) under the garb of a foolish king who lived in the country a long time ago. Another popular shtick of Shimura in the same show is "Henna Oji-san" [an obnoxious uncle character] who entertains himself in the company of nubile girls. After being caught for his pranks, the character regularly ends the shtick with a song 'Sou desu. Watashi wa Henna Oji-san desu'.
Shimura is most famous for starring in Hachiji Da Yo! Zen'in Shugo! with the comedy group The Drifters and Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan with Cha Kato, another former member of The Drifters.
Timeline
From September to October 1996, a rumor circulated that he had died.
In 2001, he did a duet with Naoko Ken as "Ken♀♂Ken" in "Ginza atari de Gin Gin Gin" (銀座あたりでギンギンギン).
In April 2002, he recorded a one-off single with Hello! Project's unit "Mini Moni", with the collaboration credited to "Bakatono to Mini Moni Hime" (バカ殿様とミニモニ。姫). They recorded two songs named after a catch phrase of his, "Ai-in".
Anecdotes
His stage name "Ken" comes from his father's name "Kenji" (憲司). His father worked as a vice-principal in an elementary school, and Shimura was brought up in a strict family. However, his father suffered from dementia since he was involved in a car accident in front of their home when Ken was in junior high.
In April 2005, during the demonstrations in China against Japan becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a photograph of his face was put on a website for the Chinese anti-Japanese movement for unclear reasons.
He is well known in Japan and also in Taiwan, Thailand, and India. It is also notable that Takeshi Kaneshiro is a fan of his.
Shimura severely criticized former co-star Masashi Tashiro after Tashiro's arrest, saying, "I want that fellow to disappear from the entertainment world because he did a pathetic thing."
Death
Shimura was hospitalized for severe pneumonia on 20 March 2020, then lost consciousness after anesthetized to attach a ventilator on the following day, and on 23 March it was confirmed that he had COVID-19. He was the first Japanese tarento to make public a diagnosis with The Sars-Cov-2 virus during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Japan.
On 24 March, Shimura was transferred to a hospital where ECMO was available. He had been scheduled to star in the film Kinema no kamisama [ja], but his participation was cancelled on 26 March. He was also slated to carry the Olympic torch through part of the city prior to the 2020 Tokyo games. Shimura died on 29 March 2020 at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine [ja] in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
