Ryūtarō Ōtomo

Ryutaro Otomo was born in Hiroshima in 1912, made his film debut in 1936, and went on to appear in more than a hundred films, most famously as a star of jidaigeki period drama. A hundred films is a number from a vanished industrial era of Japanese cinema, when studios shot constantly and leading men worked almost without pause. To carry that many pictures you need something beyond looks: an authority that registers the moment you enter frame with a sword at your hip. He had it. He died in 1985, having taken his own life by leaping from a building, and that fact sits heavily against the invincible swordsmen he spent decades playing. I do not think there is anything useful to say about it beyond acknowledging it honestly. What I would rather leave in front of a reader is the work: over a hundred films, still watchable, still his.

Name (English)

Ryūtarō Ōtomo

Name (Japanese)

大友柳太朗

Reading

おおとも りゅうたろう

Born

June 5, 1912 – September 27, 1985

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Rat

Origin

Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

actor

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%ABtar%C5%8D%20%C5%8Ctomo
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E5%8F%8B%E6%9F%B3%E5%A4%AA%E6%9C%97
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7385652

Tags

• Hiroshima Prefecture
• 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.