Sonny Chiba

Shi'ichi Chiba, known internationally as Sonny Chiba, was a Japanese actor and martial artist. Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience.

Chiba's career began in the 1960s, when he starred in two tokusatu superhero shows. In his first role, he replaced Susumu Wajima as the main character Kōtarō Ran/Seven Color Mask in Seven Color Mask (Nana-iro kamen) in the second half of the series. However, his breakthrough role was in the 1974 film The Street Fighter. Before retiring, Chiba had starred in Kill Bill: Volume 1, and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.