Haruhiko Yamanouchi

Haruhiko Yamanouchi (山内 春彦, Yamanouchi Haruhiko, born 27 March 1946), known also as Hal Yamanouchi (ハル・ヤマノウチ, Haru Yamanouchi), is a Japanese-Italian actor, stuntman, and choreographer.

Yamanouchi graduated in liberal arts at the University of Tokyo and then he moved to London where he attended drama and dancing lessons. He was among the disciples of mime artist Lindsay Kemp. He moved to Italy in 1976 and he began his career as an actor in experimental stage productions.

He is best known for his portrayal of typical Asian characters in many 1970s and 1980s Italian erotic comedies and exploitation films, such as Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977), Crime at the Chinese Restaurant (1981), 2020 Texas Gladiators (1982), The Sword of the Barbarians (1982), 2019, After the Fall of New York (1983), Endgame (1983), Warriors of the Year 2072 (1984) and Under the Chinese Restaurant (1987).

Yamanouchi starred in Adriano Celentano's musical Joan Lui (1985) and in Gabriele Salvatores's science-fiction film Nirvana (1997). He also starred in several American productions, such as Stuart Gordon's Robot Jox (1990), Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Paul McGuigan's Push (2009) and Peter Weir's The Way Back (2010).

He most notably portrayed the main antagonist Ichirō Yashida / Silver Samurai in The Wolverine (2013).

Yamanouchi is also the Italian voice actor of Ken Watanabe.

Film

Television