Hiroyuki Sanada

Hiroyuki Sanada, MBE (born Hiroyuki Shimosawa/ Shimosawa Hiroyuki, 下澤 廣之) portrays Hiroshi Hatake on both seasons of Helix.

Early Life
Sanada was born in Tokyo, Japan on October 12, 1960. Sanada began training with actor/martial artist Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club at age 11, and graduated from Nihon University's film department.

Career
Sanada acted in a number of Japanese movies before coming to prominence as an actor in the 1984 movie Mahjong Hourouki.

In the 1999-2000 season, Sanada acted in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of King Lear, for which he received an honorary MBE.

Some of his more well-known roles include Seibei Iguchi in The Twilight Samaurai (2002), Ryuji Takamara in Ring (1998), Ujio in The Last Samurai (2003) Dogen in the sixth season of Lost (2010), and Hideki Yasumoto in Extant (2014).

Sanada portrayed Hiroshi Hatake on Helix from 2014 to 2015. He acted alongside Sir Ian McKellen in the 2015 film Mr. Holmes.

Trivia
In his earlier years, Sanada was often credited as "Henry", "Harry", or "Duke" Sanada.

Sanada has said, "One of my hopes or missions is changing the image of Asian actors and Japanese. If I can participate in changing the image, I’ll take the role. If I feel it’s going to make things worse, I’ll say no."

Sanada has a long-standing friendship with fellow actor Jackie Chan.

Sanada is 5'6" tall.

Damon Lindelof, co-creator of Lost, once called Sanada "the Japanese Harrison Ford."

ReferencesEdit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroyuki_Sanada

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0760796/bio

http://knowshi.com/actor-interview-hiroyuki-sanada-mr-holmes/

http://www.popentertainment.com/features_actors/sanada.htm

http://blog.seattlepi.com/peoplescritic/2015/07/14/interview-hiroyuki-sanada-mr-holmes/