Masayuki Mori

Masayuki Mori, born Yukimitsu Arishima, was a Japanese actor best remembered for his work with legendary director Akira Kurosawa, notably on the latter's masterpiece "Rashomon" and later in several of his other great films. The son of novelist Takeo Arishima, Mori studied at Kyoto University and quickly found work on the stage. He began his career-spanning collaboration with Kurosawa in 1945, when he co-starred in the adventure drama "The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail." He then began another career-long collaboration, this time with Kozaburo Yoshimura in his 1947 family drama, "Anjo-ke no butokai." Mori carried on working with the two famed directors as Japan entered a dark period after World War II. He worked again with Kurosawa on "Rashomon," where he portrayed the husband/victim Kanazawa-no-Takehiro, and next as Kinji Kameda in the adaptation of "The Idiot." Mori's intense expressiveness and his background on the stage served him well, and he soon became one of Japan's most respected actors. His roles throughout the '50s, in the 16th-century Japan-set "Ugetsu" and in Mikio Naruse's World War II film "Ukigumo," further established him as Japan's top talent. Of the dozens of features he starred in throughout the '60s, the most notable was Kurosawa's "The Bad Sleep Well," where Mori appeared as a corrupt company vice president.