Giant Robo (tokusatsu) - After The Show

After The Show

These are the known updates of cast members:

• Mitsunobu Kaneko (who had played Daisaku Kusama/Johnny Sokko in the original series) retired from acting in 1969. He died in 1997, according to series producer Tohru Hirayama.
• Mitsuo Ando (Doktor Over/Doctor Botanus) also died in 1997, according to one unverified source, after a long acting career playing villainous characters in yakuza movies and tokusatsu programs, most notably as Professor Gill in Android Kikaider.
• Japanese narrator Koichi Chiba died in 2001, having played a number of roles until the year before his death. Interestingly, he was the only person associated with the 1966 series who was also involved with the OVA, voicing Dr. Franken Von Vogler.
• Hideo Murota, who played the villain known as Black Dia/Harlequin, died of lung cancer in 2002, having spent his entire life following Giant Robo in a variety of film and TV roles.
• Akio Ito (Juro Minami/Jerry Mano) reportedly subsequently became a production designer.
• Yumiko Katayama (Mitsuko Nishino/Mitsuko Hino) also appeared in the 1969 Japanese TV series Playgirls. Other than Giant Robo she has appeared in several of Toei's "Pinky Violence" films in the early 1970s; 1971's Zubeko bancho: zange no neuchi mo nai (Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess) and 1973's Zenka onna: koroshi-bushi (Criminal Woman: Killing Melody). Her acting career appears to have ended after 1973.
• Matasaburo Niwa (Spider) was a Toei character actor prior to Giant Robo. His only notable tokusatsu role following Giant Robo was as the villainous Black Shogun in the 1971 TV series Kamen Rider.
• Catherine Byers (aka Bobbie Byers), who provided Johnny Sokko's English language voice, has had a lengthy career since the 1960s. She is also known for having voiced Captain Bonnie (Bokko) on the English language version of The Amazing 3, as well as Prince Planet on the series of the same name. She appeared on-camera in two 1960s biker films; 1967's Wild Rebels and 1968's Savages from Hell. Since then she has focused on voice acting (primarily talking books) and stage work. Her Amazing 3 coworkers (Neil Patrick, Paul Brown, Kurt Nagel, and Jerry Burke) also provided various voices on Johnny Sokko And His Flying Robot.