was a Japanese actor, comedian, singer, and guitarist. He won six awards for acting.Hitoshi Ueki - Awards
IMDB Retrieved June 21, 2008 His film credits stretch from 1960 to 1995. Ueki came to fame through the comic jazz-band

The Crazy Cats The also known as Hajime Hana and the Crazy Cats (, ''Hana Hajime to Kurējī Kyattsu'') were a Japanese jazz band and comedy group popular in film and television, particularly between the 1950s and 1970s. Led by Hajime Hana, the band's other mai ...

led by Hajime Hana. His major appearances were in the ''Musekinin Otoko'' film series, the comedy variety show ''Shabondama Holiday'', the prime-time television series ''The Hangman'', and the ten 2-hour television shows in the ''Nagoya Yomeiri Monogatari'' franchise. He appeared in the

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...

epic ''

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "historical drama, period dramas", it refers to stories that take place before the Meiji Restoration of 1868. ''Jidaigeki'' show the lives of the samurai, farmers, crafts ...

'' film '' Ran'' in 1985, receiving a nomination for the Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, and earned the Japanese Academy,

Kinema Junpo , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...

, and

Mainichi The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English-language news website called , and publishes a bilin ...

film awards for best supporting actor for his role as the eccentric grandfather in ''

Big Joys, Small Sorrows is a 1986 Japanese film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita, revisiting his melancholic earlier work, ''Times of Joy and Sorrow'' (1957), of a lighthouse keeper and the transient lifestyle he and his family endure. Shot at 10 different lighthouses, fo ...

'' in 1987. On stage, he portrayed Billy Flynn in the musical ''

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

'', voiced the

Roddy McDowall Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 3 October 1998) was a British-American actor whose career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across over 60 years. Born in London, he began his acting career as a child in his n ...

role in the Japanese market release of ''

Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is a science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic world in which humans and intelligent apes c ...

'', and served as the narrator in the Japanese version of

Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series ...

. His hit song with Hana Hajime and the Crazy Cats, ''Sūdara-bushi'', placed in the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

top ten, and landed him an appearance on the

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

annual music spectacular

Kōhaku Uta Gassen , more commonly known simply as ''Kōhaku'', is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK net ...

. Ueki received the Purple Ribbon Medal of Honour in 1993 and the 4th Class

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese honors system, Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge feat ...

in 1999. In 2011, new technology was used to create a

Vocaloid is a singing Speech synthesis, voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project between Yamaha Corporation and the Music Technology Group at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. The s ...

voicebank using his voice.link
/ref>

Discography

Albums

* , 1966 * , 1971 * , 1990 * , 1991 * , 1992 * , 1995

Partial filmography

Films

* ''

Tattoo Ari is a 1982 Japanese film directed by Banmei Takahashi. The film was based on the life of Akiyoshi Umekawa. Cast * Ryudo Uzaki as Akio Takeda * Keiko Sekine as Michiyo * Misako Watanabe as Sadako Takeda * Ayako Ōta (太田あや子) as Miyoko ...

'' (1982) * '' The Crazy Family'' (1984) * '' Ran'' (1985) as Nobuhiro Fujimaki * '' Ora Tōkyō sa Iguda'' (1985) * ''

'' (1986) as Kunio Sugimoto * '' Aitsu ni Koishite'' (1987) * ''

Maiko Haaaan!!! is a Japanese comedy film released in 2007. Hitoshi Ueki made his final film appearance in the film. Plot Kimihiko Onizuka (Sadao Abe) is a salaryman infatuated with Geisha, maiko (apprentice geisha) and whose greatest goal in life is to play a p ...

'' (2007)

Television

* '' Momotarō-zamurai'' (1976–77) as Saruno Inosuke

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ueki, Hitoshi 1927 births 2007 deaths Japanese male actors Japanese male comedians Japanese jazz guitarists Recipients of the Medal of Honor (Japan) Vocaloid voice providers 20th-century Japanese guitarists Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class 20th-century Japanese comedians 20th-century Japanese male singers Japanese male jazz musicians Crazy Cats members