KEN TAKAKURA, an actor known as “Japan’s Clint Eastwood” for his portrayal of tough but principled gangsters, has died at the age of 83.

    He died of lymphoid cancer in Tokyo on Nov. 10, Japan’s Kyodo News reported yesterday.

    Takakura, born as Goichi Oda in Fukuoka, southern Japan in 1931, was recruited by a major film production when he was applying for a managerial position while having trouble finding a job after graduating from a university in Tokyo.

    Takakura’s acting skills were acknowledged by the Japanese media after starring in the film “Shiawase No Kiiroi Hankachi” (The Yellow Handkerchief).

    He rose to stardom in China for his role in “Kimi You Funme No Kawa O Watare,” also known as Zhuibu in Chinese (Manhunt), which was the first foreign film to have played in China after the “Cultural Revolution.”

    The film created a social stir in China at the time and Takakura became the idol for a generation of Chinese youth in the 1970s.

    He has also worked with Chinese director Zhang Yimou in the film “Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles.”

    Takakura gained international renown in the 1989 police thriller “Black Rain,” where he played a Japanese policeman dealing with U.S. actor Michael Douglas in the role of an irritable New York cop.

    The 2012 award-winning “Dearest” became his last of more than 200 films that he starred in.

    (SD-Agencies)