Japanese actor Ken Ogata died of liver cancer on 5 October 2008. Born Ogata Akinobu in Tokyo, Japan, on 20 July 1937, he won three Japanese Academy Awards for Best Actor (1979, 1984, and 1987), and was nominated for eight more.
In a nearly fifty-year career, most of his work was in Japanese. He first came to Western attention playing a serial killer in Vengeance is Mine (1979).
His genre appearances include: Izo (2004), Kamitsukitai (From Dracula with Love, 1991), Kujaku ô (Peacock King, 1988), Makai tenshô (Samurai Reincarnation 1981), and Fukkatsu no hi (Day of Resurrection, 1980).
He is survied by two sons: Kanta and Naoto. For more information, see this New York Times obituary.