Masahiko Tsugawa

Tsugawa was born January 2, 1940, in Kyoto, Japan.[1] After acting as a child, he made his major debut at the age of 16 in the Kō Nakahira film Crazed Fruit in 1956.[2] Tsugawa's family was heavily involved in the film industry since before his birth. Tsugawa attended school until dropping out of Waseda University Graduate School to pursue acting alone.[3]

He gradually grew in popularity by playing villain roles in such television jidaigeki drama series as the Hissatsu series[3][4] and appeared in films like Otoko wa tsurai yo: Watashi no Tora-san and Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. He was eventually adopted as one of director Juzo Itami's favourite actors, and went on to appear in nearly every one of his movies since Tampopo.[1][2]

In television Tsugawa portrayed Tokugawa Ieyasu five times.[2] He played Ieyasu in the 2000 Aoi Tokugawa Sandai[1] and became the oldest actor who played a lead role in the Taiga drama.[5]

Tsugawa recently debuted as a director under the pseudonym Makino Masahiko with his film Nezu no Ban.[1] He chose this name because he is the nephew of the Japanese director Masahiro Makino, his mother's brother. Legend has it that Tsugawa was so awed by the director while watching him at work as a young child that he asked if he could use Makino as his last name should he ever be a director, because of the similarities of the first names.[3]

Tsugawa comes from an illustrious film family. His older brother Hiroyuki Nagato was an actor.[1] His wife Yukiji Asaoka was an actress. His grandfather is the director Shōzō Makino, his father, Kunitarō Sawamura, and his mother, Tomoko Makino, were both actors.[1] His aunt and uncle through his father are the actors Sadako Sawamura and Daisuke Katō.

Tsugawa died August 4, 2018, due to heart failure.[1] He was 78.[2]

• Granpapa Pro Profile
• Masahiko Tsugawa at IMDb
• Masahiko Tsugawa at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)