Kōtarō Yoshida (actor)

Kōtarō Yoshida (吉田 鋼太郎, Yoshida Kōtarō, born January 14, 1959 in Tokyo) is a Japanese actor and theatre director. He is currently affiliated with Horipro.

Kōtarō Yoshida
吉田 鋼太郎
Born (1959-01-14) January 14, 1959
Tokyo, Japan
OccupationActor, theatre director
AgentHoripro
Height1.74 m (5 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Children1
Websitewww.horipro.co.jp/yoshidakoutarou/

Biography

Yoshida spent six years in Osaka during his grade school days, and later grew up in Hino, Tokyo. While a student at St. Paul High School, he saw the Shakespearean comedy "Twelfth Night" by the Kumo Theater Company and decided to become an actor. While studying at the Department of German Literature in the Faculty of Literature at Sophia University, he made his debut by performing Twelfth Night in the Shakespeare Study Group. He later dropped out of the same university.

After working with the Shiki Theatre Company for six months, he worked with Shakespeare Theatre, Lyming Theatre Company, and Tokyo Ichigumi before forming the AUN Theatre Company with director Yoshihiro Kurita in 1997, which he also directed. He was valued as an actor capable of performing the roles required of foreign classics such as Shakespeare and Greek tragedies, and was a regular in Yukio Ninagawa's productions. He is a close friend of Tatsuya Fujiwara and Shun Oguri, who often appeared in Ninagawa's works. Starting in 2010, he expanded his activities into television dramas and films on the advice of Oguri.

Yoshida played Hanzawa's boss in Hanzawa Naoki in 2013 and Densuke Kanō, who was modeled after businessman Den'emon Itō, in Hanako to Anne in 2014. These performances attracted attention, which led to an increase in his appearances in films, his first starring role being in Tokyo Sentimental.

He got married on January 1, 2016 (his fourth marriage, including one de facto marriage) and hosted a wedding in February 2017. In October 2016, he succeeded Yukio Ninagawa as the second artistic director of the Sai no Kuni Shakespeare Series.

Filmography

Stage
Year Title Role Director Notes/Refs
1985 Twelfth Night Harumi Nakashima
1997 Othello Othello Yukio Ninagawa
1998 The Merchant of Venice Shylock Norio Deguchi
2001 Hamlet Hamlet Norio Deguchi
2008 King Lear Earl of Gloucester Yukio Ninagawa
2014 Julius Caesar Cassius Yukio Ninagawa
2015 Death Note: The Musical Ryuk Tamiya Kuriyama

Film
Year Title Role Director Notes/Refs
2010 Surely Someday Kitō Shun Oguri
2015 Assassination Classroom Kensaku Ōno Eiichirō Hasumi
Shinjuku Swan Amano Sion Sono
2017 To Each His Own Mamoru Yamagami Izuru Narushima
Teiichi: Battle of Supreme High Jōsuke Akaba Akira Nagai
The Third Murder Daisuke Settsu Hirokazu Koreeda
Mixed Doubles Seiichirō Yamashita Junichi Ishikawa
Shinjuku Swan II Amano Sion Sono
2018 The Lies She Loved Kazuhito Nakae
Love × Doc Osamu Suzuki
Over Drive Eiichirō Hasumi
2019 Doraemon: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration Diabolo (voice) Shinnosuke Yakuwa
Ossan's Love the Movie Musashi Kurosawa
Brave Father Online: Our Story of Final Fantasy XIV Akio's father Lead role
Dragon Quest: Your Story Gema (voice) Takashi Yamazaki
Lupin III: The First Lambert (voice) Takashi Yamazaki
Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion the Movie: Mirai Kara Kita Shinsoku no ALFA-X Ohanefu (voice) Takahiro Ikezoe
2020 Kaiji: Final Game Yoshihiro Kurosaki Tōya Satō [1]
From Today, It's My Turn!! Ichirō Mitsuhashi Yūichi Fukuda

Television
Year Title Role Network Notes/Refs
2013 The Brothers Karamazov Bunzō Kurosawa CX
Hanzawa Naoki Hiroshi Naitō TBS
2014 Hanako to Anne Densuke Kanō NHK Asadora
Mozu Jin Nakagami TBS
2016 Sanada Maru Oda Nobunaga NHK Taiga drama
Totto TV Hisaya Morishige NHK
Yuriko-san no Ehon Hiroshi Harashima NHK
2016 A girl & three sweethearts Higashimura Ryo CX
2018 Ossan's Love Musashi Kurosawa EX
From Today, It's My Turn!!' Ichirō Mitsuhashi NTV
2019 Ieyasu, Edo wo Tateru Gotō Tokujō NHK
Ossan's Love in the Sky Musashi Kurosawa EX
2020 Kirin ga Kuru Matsunaga Hisahide NHK Taiga drama
The Yagyu Conspiracy Yagyū Munenori NHK Lead role, TV movie
The Sun Stands Still: The Eclipse Tōru Nagashima Wowow

Awards
Year Award ceremony Category Result
2014 7th International Drama Festival in Tokyo Best Supporting Actor Won[2]
2018 11th International Drama Festival in Tokyo Best Supporting Actor Won
gollark: Okay, that's possibly justifiable.
gollark: Oh, I read the end of that as "I think".
gollark: Have you SEEN slaves?
gollark: Have you SEEN ancient times?
gollark: Also that, yes, you can choose what to do as long as it is indirectly valued enough to get people to give you food and such.

References
  1. "「カイジ」藤原竜也主演で9年ぶり映画化、福本伸行による完全オリジナルストーリー". Natalie. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
  2. "吉田鋼太郎、『花アン』伝助人気を分析「男らしさが新鮮だった」". oricon. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
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