Kiyoshi Atsumi

Kiyoshi Atsumi (渥美 清), born Yasuo Tadokoro

(田所康雄) (1929-1996), was a Japanese film actor.

He started his career in 1951 as a comedian at a strip-show theater in Asakusa. After two years of fighting against pulmonary tuberculosis, he made his debut on TV in 1956 and on film in 1957. His performance vividly acting a lovable, innocent man in a film “Dear Mr. Emperor” (Haikei Tennno-Heika-Sama) in 1963 established his reputation as an actor.

Later he became the star of the highly popular Tora-san series of films, from the original Otoko wa tsurai yo in 1969 to the forty-eighth film released in 1995, the year before his death.

The enduring success of the series made him synonymous with the Tora-san character, and many Japanese regarded his death as the death of Tora-san, not the death of Yasuo Tadokoro or Kiyoshi Atsumi.