Post by Steve Miller on Sept 2, 2010 10:03:36 GMT -8
Born in 1939, Sonny Chiba was a key figure in the 1970s martial arts movie craze, establishing an image as rampaging rhino in contrast to Bruce Lee's lunging leopard. He also makes more goofy faces in one fight scene than Bruce Lee made his entire career. A skilled athlete and martial artist, as well as a veteran actor, Chiba established a school called the Japanese Action Club to help his fellow performers be more convincing when portraying martial artists on screen. (Dancers do okay... but try watching a Jackie Chan movie from the 1980s through the mid-1990s right after attending a Cirque du Soleil performance and it will be ruined for you.) Chiba has generally appeared in fairly high-quality films, but his most famous ones require viewers to have a high tolerance for graphic violence. A highlight of "The Street Fighter" is Chiba ripping the balls off a would-be rapist.
Trivia: Chiba was slated to co-star in a film with Bruce Lee, but Lee died from a allergic reaction to aspirin on the very day Chiba arrived in Hong Kong to start work on the production.
Quote: "Funny, you like samurai swords... I like baseball."
Trivia: Chiba was slated to co-star in a film with Bruce Lee, but Lee died from a allergic reaction to aspirin on the very day Chiba arrived in Hong Kong to start work on the production.
Quote: "Funny, you like samurai swords... I like baseball."
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