On Friday, April 8, 1921, actor Imafuku Masao is born in Iizuka, Fukuoka Prefecture. In 1940, after graduating from Fukuoka Prefectural (Kaho) Kaho Junior High School under the old system and the present Fukuoka Prefectural Kaho Senior High School, he became an engineer for Kyushu Airplane.
Just after the war, he was asked by someone he happened to know in the black market to help with the sound effects of radio dramas, and he joined NHK Fukuoka Broadcasting Company Limited. After appearing in radio and television dramas in her hometown, he moved to Tokyo in 1966 and joined the Theater Research Institute attached to the Bungakuza Theater Company in Shinanomachi. I’m a classmate of the actor Tatsuhira Shimokawa. In 1967, in the film ‘The longest day in Japan’ directed by Kihachi Okamoto, he played the role of Hata Shunroku, commander of the Second Army at the end of the war.
In 1983, he gave a fine performance as Genemon IMAMURA, who was a servant of the Takura family and married off by the main character, Shin TANIMURA, in the NHK TV serial novel, ‘Oshin’. He appeared in many movies and TV dramas as a famous supporting character, and showed a strong presence. In 2015, he died of myocardial infarction at his home in Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture, at the age of 94.
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