Mitsuo Hamada

Mitsuo Hamada's career is a study in what a single night can cost. Born in Shinjuku, Tokyo, in October 1943 and educated at Nihon University, he joined Nikkatsu in 1960 and became one of the studio's defining young leads, appearing opposite Sayuri Yoshinaga in film after film during the era when Japanese youth cinema was at its commercial peak. An Elan d'or newcomer award followed in the early 1960s. Then, in 1966, he was caught up in a quarrel at a bar in Nagoya and came close to losing an eye — and for a screen actor, whose entire instrument is a face in close-up, that is not merely an injury but a structural threat. His career never fully recovered its earlier momentum. What stays with me is not the misfortune, which is common enough, but the fact that he kept acting afterward. Film history tends to remember the untroubled ascents. I find the other kind more instructive: the performer who lost the thing the industry valued most about him and went back to work anyway.

Name (English)

Mitsuo Hamada

Name (Japanese)

浜田光夫

Reading

はまだ みつお

Born

October 1, 1943 (age 82)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Goat

Origin

Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

Height

168 cm

Occupation

actor / film actor

University

Nihon University

Awards & achievements

• 1962 Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuo%20Hamada
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%9C%E7%94%B0%E5%85%89%E5%A4%AB
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11557930

Tags

• Tokyo
• actor
• film actor

Last updated

2026-08-07

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.