Jūzō Itami

Birthday: May 15th, 1933 Date of Death: December 20th, 1997 Place of Birth: Kyoto, Japan

Jūzō Itami (1933–1997) was a Japanese actor and, later, a popular modern screenwriter and film director. Many critics came to regard him as Japan's greatest director since Akira Kurosawa. His ten feature-length movies and one short film, all of which he wrote himself, are comic satires on elements of Japanese culture. He was murdered by the yakuza in December 1997.