Takao Zushi

Takao Zushi is exactly the kind of actor who never gets enough credit. Born in Toyonaka, Osaka in 1946 — right in the thick of postwar Japan — and starting out as a child actor, he belonged to a generation where you learned the craft by doing it, not studying it. That early-onset stage life has a way of seeping into the bones; you can usually spot it in the stillness of a veteran performer, the way they fill silence without forcing it. He was never the flashy leading-man type, but those supporting players are the ones who quietly hold a whole production together, and Japanese film and television of the Showa era had a serious depth of talent in that lane. Zushi was part of it. He passed away in April 2005 at 58, which feels too soon for someone who had been at this since childhood — but a life spent working in front of a camera from the very start is genuinely rare, and that's worth sitting with.

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.

Takao Zushi (1946–2005) was a Japanese actor born in Toyonaka, Osaka, who began performing as a child. He worked as a supporting actor across Japanese film and television during the postwar Showa era. He passed away on April 1, 2005.

Name (English)

Takao Zushi

Name (Japanese)

頭師孝雄

Reading

ずし たかお

Born

June 25, 1946 – April 1, 2005

Origin

Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan

Occupation

Actor / Child Actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Cancer / Dog

Active years

1956 - 2005

Works summary

Appearances

233 (1958–2005)

By year (titles with a known year)

1958: 5, 1959: 1, 1960: 3, 1961: 1, 1963: 3, 1964: 1, 1966: 3, 1967: 1, 1968: 4, 1969: 4, 1970: 4, 1971: 4, 1972: 2, 1973: 3, 1974: 6, 1975: 8, 1976: 4, 1977: 7, 1978: 4, 1979: 7, 1980: 4, 1981: 5, 1982: 7, 1983: 9, 1984: 8, 1985: 4, 1986: 5, 1987: 7, 1988: 7, 1989: 3, 1990: 6, 1991: 5, 1992: 9, 1993: 4, 1994: 4, 1995: 9, 1996: 5, 1997: 4, 1998: 4, 1999: 8, 2000: 4, 2001: 2, 2002: 2, 2003: 2, 2004: 2, 2005: 1, year unknown: 28

Debut work

草笛の丘

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A0%AD%E5%B8%AB%E5%AD%9D%E9%9B%84
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11664936

Tags

• From Osaka
• Actor
• Child Actor

Last updated

November 2, 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. 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.