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Kiyoshi Atsumi (渥美 清), born Yasuo Tadokoro (田所康雄) (1929-1996), was a
Japanese film actor.
He started his career in 1951 as a comedian at a strip-show theater in
Asakusa. After two years of fighting against pulmonary tuberculosis, he made
his debut on TV in 1956 and on film in 1957. His performance vividly acting
a lovable, innocent man in a film Dear Mr. Emperor (Haikei
Tennno-Heika-Sama) in 1963 established his reputation as an actor.
Later he became the star of the highly popular 'Tora-san' series of
films, from 'Tora-san' in 1969 to the forty-eighth film released in 1995,
the previous year of his death.
All the Tora-san movies were written and directed by Yoji Yamada, and all
had much the same plot - Tora-san arrives in some remote town, fixing to con
the locals out of their money. He meets a local woman and falls in love. But
finding himself on the brink of marriage he abandons her and his schemes to
flee back to his home in Shibamata, Katsushika Ward, Tokyo.
Many Japanese regarded his death as the death of Tora-san, not the death
of Yasuo Tadokoro or Kiyoshi Atsumi.
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