Kiyoshi Atsumi

Although almost unknown outside his native Japan, comic actor Kiyoshi Atsumi played the country's most beloved character, Tora-jiro Kuruma (more familiarly known as Tora-san), in what the Guiness Book of Records has noted as the world's longest-running film series in which the same actor played the title role. At the height of Atsumi's popularity, one critic claimed that the actor's face "is known better than the emperor himself." Atsumi learned to act on-stage during the 1950s. The wandering peddler Tora-san was created by Atsumi and director Yoji Yamada for a 1968 television series. Instead they made him a movie star for Shochiku Studios in 1969 with Otoko wa Tsuraiy (It's Hard Being a Man) (1969). The series ran until 1995 and all but six episodes were ranked as the most popular and lucrative Japanese films of the year. Though Atsumi was not a handsome man -- many wags find the urge to compare his face and body with a potato -- his rebellious, free-spirited ways with the ladies and his sly tendency to satirize uptight "face-saving" with his audaciously irresponsible manner, provided many salarymen and women with delightful alter egos. Atsumi passed away from lung cancer on August 4, 1996. Atsumi was 68.

~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide