Kiyoshi Kodama

For me, Kiyoshi Kodama will always be the gentle face of Sunday afternoons, the unflappable host of Attack 25 who somehow made a quiz show feel like the most civilized room on television. He had this rare combination: a Gakushuin pedigree and an actor's natural dignity, yet zero stuffiness when a contestant nailed a tough answer, he lit up like it was his own win. What I love most is that he was a genuine bookworm, the kind who'd plow through foreign novels in the original language, and you could feel that quiet intelligence in everything he did. Tokyo-born, refined, but endlessly warm. He passed in 2011, and honestly I still miss that voice and that smile. Some people just radiate decency, and he was one of them.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Kiyoshi Kodama (January 1, 1934 – May 16, 2011) was a Japanese actor and television personality born in Kita, Tokyo. A graduate of Gakushuin University, he hosted the quiz show Panel Quiz Attack 25 for thirty-six years from 1975 until illness forced him to step down in March 2011, and was known as an avid reader and book reviewer. He died of stomach cancer on May 16, 2011.

Name (English)

Kiyoshi Kodama

Name (Japanese)

児玉清

Reading

こだま きよし

Born

January 1, 1934 – May 16, 2011

Origin

Kita, Tokyo, Japan

Height

178 cm

Occupation

Actor / Television Personality

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Dog

Blood type

O

Active years

1958 - 2011

University

Gakushuin University

Works summary

Appearances

175 (1958–2015)

By year (titles with a known year)

1958: 1, 1960: 11, 1961: 10, 1962: 11, 1963: 5, 1964: 6, 1965: 3, 1966: 6, 1967: 4, 1968: 1, 1969: 5, 1970: 5, 1971: 2, 1972: 2, 1973: 2, 1974: 5, 1975: 3, 1976: 2, 1977: 1, 1978: 4, 1979: 1, 1980: 2, 1981: 2, 1982: 4, 1984: 2, 1985: 1, 1986: 2, 1987: 1, 1988: 1, 1990: 2, 1991: 3, 1992: 2, 1993: 4, 1994: 2, 1995: 3, 1999: 1, 2001: 1, 2002: 2, 2003: 2, 2004: 2, 2005: 2, 2006: 4, 2007: 9, 2008: 5, 2009: 3, 2010: 1, 2013: 1, 2014: 1, 2015: 2, year unknown: 18

Debut work

The Hidden Fortress

Filmography / notable works

• Official sitehttp://www.office-kodama.co.jp/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%90%E7%8E%89%E6%B8%85
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1138238

Tags

• From Tokyo
• Actor
• Television Personality
• TV Actor

Last updated

September 29, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Works and profile fields sourced from Wikipedia reflect content as of 2026-08-26. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.