Utsui Ken passes away at the age of 82 due to chronic respiratory failure

Actor Utsui Ken passed away at 6.05pm on 14 March due to chronic respiratory failure. He was 82 years old. Utsui was said to have been on regular visits to the hospital recently due to pulmonary emphysema.

Utsui entered an actors' academy in 1952 and got his first leading role in the movie "Shishun no Izumi". He had been seen in many movies and dramas over the years e.g. Kurosawa Akira's "Shichinin no Samurai" and the TBS Akai series from 1974 which he co-starred with Yamaguchi Momoe. Utsui also took over the leading role in TBS drama "Wataru Seken wa oni bakari" from the late Fujioka Takuya in 2006 when the latter was sick. Even though his wife died in 2006 due to cancer, he didn't reveal the news to his co-stars and continued with the filming so as not to cause any delays to the schedule. In a bid to maintain his figure and health, Utsui stopped smoking when he turned 50 and stopped drinking alcohol at the age of 60. He also brought dumbbells to the set in order to do some exercise in his free time.

Source: Sanspo