Noboru Ando
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Noboru Ando (安藤 昇 Ando Noboru) (1925 - ) is a Japanese film actor known for his yakuza roles.
In fact, Ando was a real-life yakuza gang boss before becoming a movie star in 1965, when he appeared in a film about himself, "Chi to Okite" (Blood and Rules). He later wrote, produced and starred in another series of films about his life and his former gang, the Ando-gumi.
One clear sign of his past occupation is the large knife scar on his left cheek, the result of a brawl with a Korean gangster as a young man.
He also appeared in several films by Kinji Fukasaku.
According to Ando, acting came easily to him as a result of his underworld life: "In Japanese, the only difference between yakuza and yakusha (actor) is one hiragana character," he was quoted in the Japan Times as saying. "All yakuza have to be actors to survive."
