Akira Ishihama (石濱 朗, Ishihama Akira; 29 January 1935 – 26 July 2022) was a Japanese actor.
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Biography
Born in Tokyo, Ishihama made his film debut in 1951, at the age of sixteen, in the drama film Boyhood, whilst still in high school.
He appeared in films directed by Keisuke Kinoshita, Yoshitarō Nomura, and Masaki Kobayashi. He also had an active stage career and played supporting roles in various TV programmes, including NHK's Taiga dramas, jidaigeki (Japanese period dramas), and tokusatsu productions.
Some of his most notable roles include the student Mizuhara who accompanies a troupe of travelling performers on their journey in Yoshitarō Nomura's The Dancing Girl of Izu (1954) and Motome Chijiwa in Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri—a young rōnin fallen on hard times who is forced to follow through on a threat to commit seppuku. The ritual is made particularly excruciating and humiliating as he is forced to use a bamboo wakizashi, having sold his real blades. Ishihama had previously worked with Kobayashi on No Greater Love (1959), the first film in Kobayashi's epic war trilogy The Human Condition, where he plays Chen, a Chinese assistant to the labour camp supervisor, Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai).
Ishihama served as president of the Japan Film Actors Association from 2009 to 2011.
His daughter is the actress Miki Ishihama.