Actor Tatsuya Nakadai, known for his roles on stage and in films, has passed away at the age of 92, The Japan News reported earlier today. In his seven-decade-long career, Tatsuya Nakadai appeared in over 100 films, including those by renowned filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Kon Ichikawa, and Mikio Naruse, among others. Nakadai regarded himself as a stage actor more than a film actor and did not sign an overall agreement with any studio in Japan, letting him collaborate with various filmmakers.

One of Nakadai's early, albeit uncredited, roles came in director Kobayashi’s The Thick-Walled Room, laying the base for a collaboration that would go on for another three decades, including titles such as Kwaidan and Samurai Rebellion. Some of his most popular films with Kurosawa are Ran, High and Low, and Kagemusha. He led Ran, an epic war film that took inspiration from William Shakespeare’s play King Lear. Ran earned Kurosawa his lone Academy Award nomination in the directing category.

Nakadai won Blue Ribbon Awards twice; the first one for his performance in Harakiri back in 1962 while the other for his roles in The Battle of Port Arthur and Kagemusha in 1980. Three decades later, in 2015, the actor won the Order of Culture, which is considered the highest accolade in Japan for contributions to the arts and sciences.

His survivors include daughter Nao Nakadai.