Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai, a frequent collaborator with revered director Akira Kurosawa, has died.

The Japan News reported that the actor died of pneumonia in a Tokyo hospital on November 8. Nakadai was 92.

Nakadai, born in Tokyo in 1932, became one of his generation’s most renowned actors. His early career was closely linked with directors Masaki Kobayashi and Akira Kurosawa. Kobayashi discovered Nakadai working as a sales assistant at a Tokyo department store in the 1950s, giving him his first major film role.

Kobayashi’s first role for Nakadai was a minor one in the 1956 war drama The Thick-Walled Room, which focused on Japanese soldiers accused of war crimes.

The duo collaborated on 11 films in total. Nakadai next starred in the director’s The Human Condition trilogy (1959-61)

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