Minoru Chiaki

Minoru Chiaki (千秋 実 Chiaki Minoru) is a Japanese actor who appeared in such films as Akira Kurosawa's the Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress. In Seven Samurai he was the good-natured samurai Heihachi, and he was the first of the samurai to be killed. Ironically, in real life he turned out to be the last of the seven actors to die. Later in his career he appeared as a secondary actor in many Toei films. In 1986, he was given the Best Actor prize at the Japan Academy Prize ceremony for his performance in Toei's Gray Sunset (1985).