Haruhiko Yamanouchi

Haruhiko Yamanouchi (山内 春彦, Yamanouchi Haruhiko, born 20 April 1946), also known as Hal Yamanouchi (ハル・ヤマノウチ, Haru Yamanouchi), is a Japanese-Italian actor, voice actor, dancer, choreographer, stunt performer, writer and former mime.^[1] Born in Tokyo, he has resided in Italy since 1975 and holds Italian citizenship.^[2][3]

Beginning his career as a mime, he has performed in and choreographed for numerous stage productions. Since 1976, he has acted in over 100 films and television series, including several 1980s genre films directed by the likes of Sergio Martino, Ruggero Deodato and Enzo G. Castellari. He is best known to international audiences for his villainous supporting roles in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Wolverine. He has also translated and dubbed Japanese-language films into Italian.

Yamanouchi was born in Tokyo. His grandfather, Akio Yamauchi, was a children's book writer. He grew up in Niigata Prefecture and graduated from Niigata High School and went on to study liberal arts at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. After graduation in 1971, he moved to London where he attended drama and dancing lessons. He was among the disciples of mime artist Lindsay Kemp.

While in London, he joined Stomu Yamashta's Red Buddha Theatre company, performing at the Roundhouse and the Piccadilly Theatre. He moved to Italy in 1975 and he began his career as an actor in experimental stage productions, appearing at pantomime festivals like the Festival Internazionale di mimo e pantomima in Florence and Settembre al Borgo in Campania.^[3][2] He was a regular guest on RAI programming, where he would demonstrate his various acts. He first gained recognition for his stage acting in a production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest where he played the role of Ariel in over 300 stagings and earned him a Premio Internazionale Guido d'Arezzo.^[4]

As a choreographer, Yamanouchi specializes in opera, collaborating with directors like Mauro Bolognini, Andrea Camilleri, Giancarlo Cobelli, Glauco Mauri, Mario Missiroli, Giuliano Montaldo and Luca Ronconi. He choreographed a production of Turandot held at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium.

Yamanouchi is made his screen acting debut with an uncredited role in the 1975 Fantozzi, directed by Luciano Salce. He appeared in numerous erotic comedies and B-movies throughout the 1980s, including Crime at the Chinese Restaurant (1981), 2020 Texas Gladiators (1982), The Sword of the Barbarians (1982), 2019, After the Fall of New York (1983), Endgame (1983), Warriors of the Year 2072 (1984), Under the Chinese Restaurant (1987), Phantom of Death (1988).^[2] He was occasionally credited under the pseudonym Al Huang.

More high-profile roles taken by Yamanouchi include starring in Adriano Celentano's musical Joan Lui (1985) and in Gabriele Salvatores's science-fiction film Nirvana (1997).^[2] He also appeared in several American productions, such as Stuart Gordon's Robot Jox (1990), Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Paul McGuigan's Push (2009) and Peter Weir's The Way Back (2010).^[2] He most notably portrayed the older Ichirō Yashida / Silver Samurai in The Wolverine (2013) (sharing the main antagonist's role with Ken Yamamura), starring opposite Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto and Hiroyuki Sanada and also dubbed over his own dialogue and Ken Yamamura's in the Italian-language version of the film.^[2][3]

As a voice actor, Yamanouchi has translated and dubbed numerous Japanese-language films and television series into Italian and occasionally vice versa. He typically provides the Italian voice of Asian characters in international productions and is the main Italian voice actor of Ken Watanabe,^[2][3] and in his animated roles, he voiced Floyd Eaglesan in the Italian dubbed version of Despicable Me 2 (2013) and Bernie Lumen in the Italian dubbed version of Elemental (2023).^[5][6]

Yamanouchi co-founded MDA Produzioni Danza, a dance and performing arts school in the Castelnuovo di Porto neighbourhood of Rome. He has also taught at the Silvio D'Amico National Academy of Dramatic Arts, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and the Teatro Carlo Felice. He has also conducted numerous internships for mimes, dancers and actors for various associations, foundations and theater schools, on the themes of improvisation, spontaneous movements and acting with the kinesthetic approach.

From his relationship with TG3 journalist Teresa Piazza, he has a son, Taiyo Yamanouchi, who is an actor and hip hop artist who performs under the stage name 'Hyst'. He has also served as a secondary father figure to Jesto, Taiyo's half-brother from Piazza's relationship with Stefano Rosso.

Yamanouchi has resided in Rome since emigrating to Italy in 1975. He became a naturalized citizen in 1992. He is fluent in Japanese, Italian and English and has performed in all three languages. He has penned a number of essays on Italian and Japanese culture for Italian literary magazines and has contributed to UNESCO's International Theatre Institute.^[7][8]

• Haruhiko Yamanouchi at IMDb
• Haruhiko Yamanouchi at AllMovie