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.

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.

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

Origin

Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Rat

Active years

1937 - 1985

Works summary

Appearances

195 (1950–1985)

By year (titles with a known year)

1950: 1, 1951: 3, 1952: 4, 1953: 2, 1954: 5, 1955: 5, 1956: 8, 1957: 4, 1958: 5, 1959: 8, 1960: 6, 1961: 4, 1962: 5, 1963: 5, 1964: 5, 1965: 1, 1966: 6, 1967: 3, 1968: 3, 1969: 6, 1970: 5, 1971: 2, 1972: 4, 1973: 7, 1974: 5, 1975: 5, 1976: 9, 1977: 7, 1978: 1, 1979: 4, 1980: 5, 1981: 8, 1982: 5, 1983: 4, 1984: 2, 1985: 3, year unknown: 30

Debut work

にっぽんGメン 難船崎の血闘

Filmography / notable works

• 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

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.