Kōji Tsuruta (鶴田 浩二 Tsuruta Kōji, December 6, 1924 – June 16, 1987) was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 260 feature films.
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Born in Shizuoka Prefecture as Eiichi Ono, Tsuruta was studying at Kansai University when he was drafted into the Japanese Imperial Navy.[1] After the war he joined Kōkichi Takada's theater troupe and made his film debut at Shochiku in 1948 with Yūkyō no mure (Crowd of Aso).[1] Later moving to Toho and then to Toei, he played handsome leads or, in a number of films, Toshirō Mifune's rival, as he did in the Samurai Trilogy. In the 1960s, he starred in many of Toei's ninkyo eiga as chivalric but world-weary yakuza. Tsuruta was also a successful singer, scoring hits with such songs as Kizudarake no jinsei.[1]