Japanese actor Kei Sato was best known for his roles as screen villains. He starred in Kaneto Shindo’s 1964 horror film Onibaba, and was a ghost samurai in the supernatural thriller Kwaidan (1964). He was also featured as Chief Editor Gondo in Godzilla 1985 (1984).
Sato was born in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, Japan, on December 21, 1928. He worked as a municipal government official in Fukushima before moving to Tokyo to study acting in 1950. He trained at the Haiyuza Theater and made his film debut in Masaki Kobayashi’s 1959 epic The Human Condition. He worked frequently with New Wave director Nagisa Oshima from the early 1960s, appearing in such films as Cruel Story of Youth (1960) and Night and Fog in Japan (1960).
His many screen credits also include Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai (1963), Zatoichi #13: Zatoichi’s Vengeance (1966), The Sword of Doom (1966), Irezumi (1966), Three Resurrected Drunkards (1968), Yotsuya Kaidan – Oiwa no Borei (a.k.a. The Ghost of Yotsuya) (1969), Evil Spirits of Japan (1970), Live Today, Die Tomorrow! (1970), A Japanese Demon (1973), Oniwaban (a.k.a. Demon Spies) (1974), The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf (1979), The Beast to Die (1980), The Strange Tale of Oyuki (1992), and The Whispering of the Gods (2005).
Sato died of pneumonia in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan on May 2, 2010 at age 81.
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