Susumu Namishima

Susumu Namishima is one of those figures whose name has faded more than it deserves. Born in 1922 in Kagoshima — deep in old Satsuma country, where the people have a reputation for being tough and straight-backed — he lived through prewar Japan and the war itself, then debuted in film in 1951 and became one of Toei's contemporary-drama stars during the long rebuild that followed. There's something quietly remarkable about that kind of staying power. He even took his screen name from a character he played in 1953, and by 1959 he was leading early TV shows like Nanairo Kamen, work visible mostly to those who were watching at the time. He passed in 1995, so most of his career is tucked away in an era I can only imagine, but the fact that he was still here to see Japan become what it became makes him feel like a living bridge across an extraordinary century.

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.

Susumu Namishima was a Japanese actor born on October 3, 1922, in Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture. Discovered as a new face by Taisen Film in 1950, he debuted in 1951, became one of Toei's contemporary-drama stars, and starred in early TV series such as Sōsa Honbu and Nanairo Kamen in 1959. He died in 1995.

Name (English)

Susumu Namishima

Name (Japanese)

波島進

Reading

なみしま すすむ

Born

October 3, 1922 – 1995

Origin

Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Dog

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B3%A2%E5%B3%B6%E9%80%B2
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11555518

Tags

• From Kagoshima Prefecture
• Actor

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.