Hiroyuki Sanada, a first-time Emmy nominee for his nuanced portrayal of the strategic and cunning Lord Toranaga in “Shōgun,” is one of the world’s most celebrated and prolific film actors.
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The age at which Sanada, now 63, began acting in Japanese films, appearing in “Game of Chance” (1966) as the son of a character played by martial arts star Sonny Chiba, a role model for Sanada’s later career in…
1980s
…Japanese and Hong Kong action films, in which Sanada starred while simultaneously gaining a reputation as a quietly magnetic character actor in Japanese films and television dramas.
3
Number of Japanese Academy Award nominations Sanada had received by the age of 35.
1998
Sanada furthered his international profile by playing a professor investigating a creepy VHS tape in the horror sensation “Ringu,” later remade in the U.S. as “The Ring.”
2002
The year Sanada became an honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire after playing the Jester in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of “King Lear.”
25
“Shōgun” has the most Emmy nominations, but Sanada is used to big numbers during awards season, following 2002’s “The Twilight Samurai.”
12
…received a dozen Japanese Academy Awards, including best actor for Sanada's moving performance as an impoverished widower struggling with his samurai duties.
5
Post-“Twilight Samurai” Hollywood films starring Sanada have grossed at least $400 million worldwide, including “The Last Samurai” and “John Wick: Chapter 4.”
2
Sanada is the second revered Japanese actor to earn an Emmy nomination as Lord Toranaga in “Shōgun.” Toshiro Mifune was nominated for the 1980 NBC miniseries.
6
But Sanada's nearly six-decade career more closely resembles that of Jodie Foster, 61, a child actress, college graduate and action star who also won an award for best acting role as a giant (“The Silence of the Lambs”) and…
1
…like Sanada, he is the favorite to win in September with his first acting Emmy nomination (as the lead in a limited series, “True Detective: Night Country”).
