Noboru Ando

Noboru Ando (Japanese: 安藤 昇, Hepburn: Andō Noboru, 24 May 1926 – 16 December 2015) was a Japanese actor, writer and former yakuza. He is known for utilizing his experiences as a criminal in his many roles in yakuza films. He had a large knife scar on his left cheek, the result of a brawl with a Korean gangster as a young man.[1]

Noboru Ando
Born(1926-05-24)24 May 1926
Ōkubo, Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Died16 December 2015(2015-12-16) (aged 89)
Tokyo, Japan
OccupationActor, writer
Years active1965–2015

Life and career

Noboru Ando was born in Higashi, Ōkubo, Tokyo, the oldest of four children to a father of samurai descent.[2] After going to primary school in Yokohama he entered junior high in Manchuria, where his father was working, but returned to Tokyo to live with relatives when he was expelled.[2] He was expelled from another school after only three months and began running with other delinquents, before being sent to a reformatory school for theft.[2] He entered the military for pilot training in December 1943 and in June 1945 volunteered for a suicide frogman unit, though the war ended before he saw action.[2] When he returned to Tokyo, he entered Hosei University, although he continued his gangster behavior and dropped out in May 1948.[2]

Ando formed his own yakuza family in 1952, the Ando-gumi (ja:安藤組, Andō-gumi), that was mainly composed of bad-boy former college kids. With more than 300 members at its peak, the group operated in the Shibuya district.[2] Operating under the name Azuma Kogyo (東興業), they had legitimate real estate and entertainment companies such as night clubs.[2] In June 1958, a hitman sent by Ando shot businessman Hideki Yokoi. Yokoi had insulted Ando when his gang were hired to collect a debt Yokoi owed.[2] Ando was arrested in Hayama after 35 days on the run and served six years in prison.[2] When he was released in December 1964, he formally dissolved his yakuza family citing the death of one of his men and talking to that man's mother.[2] Author George Abe was a former member of the Ando-gumi.[3]

Soon after disbanding his gang, Ando was approached by a producer from Shochiku. He had his first acting role in 1965's Blood and Rules, a film about himself.[2] 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 has been quoted as saying. "All yakuza have to be actors to survive."[1] He starred in three films by Tai Kato; A Man's Face Shows His Personal History, Opium Heights: Hell Squad Attack (both 1966), and 1967's Sentence: Eighteen Years.[2] In 1967, Koji Shundo, a producer at Toei and former yakuza himself, lured Ando to Toei. He appeared in a total of 51 Toei films including Teruo Ishii's Abashiri Bangaichi: Fubuki no Toso (1967) and Gendai Ninkyoshi (1973) as well as Kinji Fukasaku's Japan Organized Crime Boss (1969), Sympathy for the Underdog (1971), Street Mobster (1972), New Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1974) and Graveyard of Honor (1975).[2]

Through the years he starred in several more films detailing his and his yakuza family's history, including Ando Noboru no Waga Tobou to Sex no Kiroku (1976), which depicted his sexual escapades while on the run from police.[2] After appearing in Sadao Nakajima's The Big Boss's Head in 1979, Ando largely retired from acting. He occasionally served as producer, such as on 1988's Bruise by Shunichi Kajima, and wrote novels.[2] He resumed acting in 1997, this time in straight to video films.[2] In 2002, he served as supervisor on Takashi Miike's Deadly Outlaw: Rekka,[2] which is loosely based on the actor's experiences.

He died of pneumonia in a Tokyo hospital at the age of 89.[4]

Partial filmography
  • Chi to Okite (血と掟, "Blood and Rules") (1965)
  • Yasagure no okite (1965)
  • Tobo to okite (1965)
  • Honoo to okite (1966) - Shin Nanjô
  • A Man's Face Shows His Personal History (男の顔は履歴書) (1966)
  • Ahendaichi jigokubutai totsugekseyo (1966)
  • Ôtoko no kao wa kuri fûda (1966)
  • Bokyô to okito (1966)
  • Kyôkaku-dô (19676)
  • Gyangu no teiô (1967)
  • Abashiri Bangaichi: Fubuki no Toso (1967) - Todoroki
  • Zoku Soshiki Bōryoku (1967) - Kenji Kunisaki
  • Nihon ânkokushi: chî no koso (1967)
  • Hakuchû no zansatsû (1967)
  • Choueki juhachi-nen: kari shutsugoku (1967)
  • Choueki juhachi-nen (1967)
  • Nippon ankokushi: nasake muyô (1968)
  • Tarekomi (1969) - Mamoru Sagara
  • Yakuza hijoshi - mushyo kyodai (1969)
  • Yakuza hijoshi-chi no sakazuki (1969)
  • Soshiki boryoku: kyodai sakazuki (1969)
  • Showa yakuza keizu - Nagasaki no kao (1969)
  • Japan Organized Crime Boss (1969) - Ooba
  • Yakuza hijoshi-chi no kechaku (1970)
  • Sympathy for the Underdog (1971) - Shark
  • The Wolves (1971) - Gunjiro Ozeki
  • Shin Abashiri Bangaichi: Fubuki no Dai-Dassou (1971)
  • Shin abashiri bangaichi: Arashi yobu shiretoko-misaki (1971)
  • Mamushi no kyôdai: Orei mairi (1971)
  • Chôeki Tarô: Mamushi no kyôdai (1971)
  • Gyangu tai gyangu: Aka to kuro no burûsu (1972)
  • Street Mobster (1972) - Boss Yato
  • Yakuza to kôsô (1972) - Ando
  • Yakuza to kôsô: Jitsuroku Andô-gumi (1972)
  • Showa zankyo-den: Yabure-gasa (1972)
  • Jitsuroku Ando-gumi Shugekihen (The True Story of the Ando Gang: Attack) (1973)
  • Jitsuroku: Shisetsu Ginza keisatsu (1973)
  • Gendai ninkyô-shi (1973) - Mitsuo Kurata
  • Jitsuroku Andô-gumi: Shûgeki-hen (1973)
  • Bôryoku gai (1974) - Egawa
  • Karajishi keisatsu (1974)
  • San-daime Shumei (1974)
  • Yadonashi (1974)
  • Ando-gumi Gaiden Hitokiri Shatei (The Untold Story of the Ando Gang: The Killer Brother) (1974)
  • New Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1974) - Unokichi Kaizu
  • Hijo gakuen waru - nerikan dokisei (1974)
  • Â kessen kôkûtai (1974)
  • Graveyard of Honor (1975) - Ryunosuke Nozu
  • Ando Noboru no Waga Tobou to Sex no Kiroku (1976) - Himself
  • Genkai-nada (1976) - Kondo
  • Sochô no kubi (1979) - Shozo Hanamori
  • The True Face of Shinjuku: The Story of the Shinjuku Delinquent Gangs (1997)
  • Yakuza tosei no sutekina menmen (1998)
  • The True History of the Ando Gang: Rules of the Starving Wolf (2002) - Himself in the present day / Narrator
  • Shibuya monogatari (2005) - (final film role)

References
  1. Schilling, Mark (17 April 2002). "We got a real wiseguy here". Japan Times. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  2. Schilling, Mark (2003). The Yakuza Movie Book : A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films. Stone Bridge Press. pp. 119–123. ISBN 1-880656-76-0.
  3. 安部譲二さん死去　「塀の中の懲りない面々」. Sankei Shimbun (in Japanese). 8 September 2019. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  4. "安藤昇さん死去". Nikkan Sports (in Japanese). Retrieved 18 December 2015.
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