Akira Kobayashi

Akira Kobayashi (小林 旭, Kobayashi Akira, born November 3, 1938 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese actor. His nickname is Maitogai (マイトガイ, "mighty guy").

Biography

Kobayashi attended Meiji University but left before graduating. He became an actor at Nikkatsu and made his film debut in 1956. He solidified his popularity with such films as Nangoku Tosa o Ato ni Shite (A Farewell to Southern Tosa) and starred in the "Wataridori" ("Rambler") and "Senpūji" ("Whirlwind Child") film series. Kobayashi, along with Yujiro Ishihara and others, formed the core of Nikkatsu Action's golden age.

Kobayashi was married to popular singer Misora Hibari in 1962, but the marriage ended in divorce two years later in 1964.^{[citation needed]}

Music

Kobayashi sang some of the theme songs from his movies such "Gitā o Motta Wataridori" ("The Guitar-toting Rambler") and "Ginza Maitogai" ("Ginza's Whirlwind Child"), which became hits.

In addition to those songs, he performed the song "Jidōsha Shō Ka" ("Auto Show Song") (which, in 2005, is featured in Asahi Breweries' "Cocktail Partner" commercial) and comical songs like "Koi no Yamanotesen" ("The Yamanote Line of Love") and some songs of the enka variety, such as "Mukashi no Namae de Deteimasu" ("I'm Going by My Old Name").

Filmography

Film

• (川上哲治物語 背番号１６ Kawakami Tetsuharu monogatari sebangō 16) (1957)
• Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (幕末太陽伝 Bakumatsu taiyōden) (1957)
• (絶唱 Zesshō) (1958)

External links

• "AKIRA KOBAYASHI" (in English). at The Complete Index to World Film. http://www.citwf.com/person248919.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-27. 
• Akira Kobayashi (I) at the Internet Movie Database
• "小林旭 (Kobayashi Akira)" (in Japanese). JMDB. http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/person/p0180760.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-19.