 | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Japanese. Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
Franz Gruber (born February 10, 1930) is an American actor mostly known for having played in Japanese Tokusatsu movie/TV productions (e.g. Ultraman, Ultra Seven, Mighty Jack). [1]
Gruber was born in New York City in 1930. He was the son of German-American doctor Fredrick Gruber (1883-1960) and his wife Maria (1886-1961). Franz attended Columbia University and graduated in 1949. After getting a job as a journalist for The New York Times, Franz traveled to Japan to wrote about Japanese culture and religion. In 1957, he starting his filming career and played the foreign character in many kaiju films. His acting career lasted from 1963 to 1974. Returning to the USA, he became a teacher at Brooklyn College Academy until he retired in 1989. He married Jennie Rosa in 1955 and has two children (Mark 1960 and Elizabeth 1962).
The Nikkatsu Corporation is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. The name Nikkatsu amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Motion Pictures".
Tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live-action films or television programs that make heavy use of practical special effects. Credited to special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, tokusatsu mainly refers to science fiction, war, fantasy, or horror media featuring such technology but is also occasionally dubbed a genre itself. Its contemporary use originated in the Japanese mass media around 1958 to explain special effects in an easy-to-understand manner and was popularized during the "first monster boom" (1966-1968). Prior to the monster boom, it was known in Japan as Tokushu gijutsu or shortened Tokugi.
Shochiku Co., Ltd. is a Japanese entertainment company. It started its business in 1895 by managing kabuki theaters in Kyoto, and in 1914, it also acquired ownership of the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo. In 1920, Shochiku entered the film production industry and established the Kamata Film Studio. Currently, it is considered one of Japan's Big Four film studios and is the oldest among the Big Four. Shochiku is a member of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ).
Shintoho Co. Ltd. was a Japanese movie studio. It was one of the big six film studios during the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. It was founded by defectors from the original Toho company following a bitter strike in 1947.
Eiichi Ono, better known by his stage name Kōji Tsuruta, was a Japanese actor and singer. He appeared in almost 260 feature films and had a unique style of singing. His daughter, Sayaka Tsuruta, is an actress.
Yoshio Tsuchiya was a Japanese actor who appeared in such films as Toshio Matsumoto's surreal Bara No Soretsu and Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Red Beard, and Kihachi Okamoto's Kill!. He had a long-standing interest in UFOs and wrote several books on the subject. He preferred starring in science fiction films, usually as aliens, or people possessed by them, in such films as Battle in Outer Space, Monster Zero, and Destroy All Monsters.
Yūzō Kawashima was a Japanese film director and screenwriter known for his lively comedies.
The X from Outer Space is a 1967 Japanese science fiction kaiju film directed by Kazui Nihonmatsu, and stars Eiji Okada and Toshiya Wazaki.
Tsuyoshi Ihara is a Japanese actor, martial artist, and writer of Korean descent.
Satsuo Yamamoto was a Japanese film director.
Shirō Toyoda was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed over 60 films during his career which spanned 50 years. He was denoted for his high-quality adaptations of works of many important twentieth-century Japanese writers.
Ryō Ikebe was a Japanese actor. He graduated from Rikkyō University and originally wanted to be a director, but ended up debuting as an actor at Tōhō in 1941. He did not achieve popularity until starring in a series of youth films in the late 1940s. He expanded his acting range in the 1950s, while still frequently appearing in genre films, such as Tōhō tokusatsu films and yakuza films at Tōei. He was also known as an essayist. On 8 October 2010, he died of blood poisoning. He was 92 years old.
Eizō Sugawa was a Japanese filmmaker.
Daiei Film Co. Ltd. was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, producing not only artistic masterpieces, such as Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950) and Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu (1953), but also launching several film series, such as Gamera, Zatoichi and Yokai Monsters, and making the three Daimajin films (1966). It declared bankruptcy in 1971 and was acquired by Kadokawa Pictures.
Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger is the Toei Company's 37th entry in its long-running Super Sentai metaseries of Japanese tokusatsu television series following Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters. Kyoryuger aired on TV Asahi from 17 February 2013 to 9 February 2014, joining Kamen Rider Wizard and later Kamen Rider Gaim in TV Asahi's Super Hero Time programming block. Its footage would later be used for the American Power Rangers season, Power Rangers Dino Charge and its follow up season, Dino Super Charge, and gained a South Korean-exclusive sequel, Power Rangers Dino Force Brave.
Genocide is a 1968 Japanese tokusatsu science fiction horror film directed by Kazui Nihonmatsu.
The Great Yokai War: Guardians is a 2021 Japanese fantasy adventure film directed by Takashi Miike. A sequel to The Great Yokai War, the film was released in Japan on August 13, 2021 by Toho and Kadokawa. Among the film's cast of creatures is the title character from the 1966 Daiei film series Daimajin.
Terror Beneath the Sea is a 1966 science fiction horror film directed by Hajime Sato. An international co-production of Japan and the United States, it stars Sonny Chiba, Peggy Neal, Franz Gruber, Andrew Hughes, Tadashi Suganuma, and Hideo Murota.
Eiji Tsuburaya (1901–1970) was a Japanese special effects director and filmmaker who worked on roughly 250 films throughout his five-decade career. Having pioneered and popularized the special effects sector of the Japanese film industry, he is popularly known as the "Father of Tokusatsu". Tsuburaya started his career in the Japanese film industry as a cinematographer for several successful dramas and jidaigeki films in the early 1920s. His directorial debut was the propaganda documentary film Three Thousand Miles Across the Equator, which he filmed in the Pacific Ocean on the Asama for most of 1935. Following the completion of photography on this film, he worked as the cinematographer and had his debut as special effects director on Princess Kaguya (1935). It was one of Japan's first major productions to feature special effects. The next year, Tsuburaya made his dramatic directorial debut with the release of Folk Song Collection: Oichi of Torioi Village and had substantial success staging the special effects for Arnold Fanck's The Daughter of the Samurai.
 | This article about a Japanese actor is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |