Shinichi Chiba

Shinichi Chiba was born Sadaho Maeda in Fukuoka, Japan, and was an Olympic-level gymnast before an injury diverted him to martial arts. Studying under legendary Kyokushin karate master Masutatsu Oyama, he earned black belts in multiple disciplines, including ninjutsu and shorinji kempo. In 1970, he founded the Japan Action Club (JAC) to train martial artists for cinema stunt work.

Chiba became an international action sensation with The Street Fighter (1974), the first movie in the US to receive an X rating strictly for graphic martial arts violence. Over his fifty-year career spanning more than 125 films, he influenced generations of filmmakers, culminating in Quentin Tarantino casting him as master swordsmith Hattori Hanzo in Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and starring in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.