Biography
Nishimura was born December 12, 1960 in Toyama, Toyama Japan. He attended Toyo University to study photography, but never graduated, turning instead to theatre at the age of 21. After a short while he gave up and returned to Toyama, returning again at the age of 24. It was at this time he met a young Kōki Mitani, who at the time was aspiring to become an actor while writing scripts for radio and theatre.
Nishimura, Mitani and others began the Tokyo Sunshine Boys in 1983, a comedy-based theatrical group which also included Japanese actors Zen Kajiwara and Kazuyuki Aijima. This group grew in popularity over the next ten years until it produced the immensely popular play 12 Gentle Japanese, a parody of Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men. This play became a movie soon after, but Nishimura was not part of the cast.
Soon after, however, in the 1990s the success of the Tokyo Sunshine Boys resulted in him being offered a number of television roles such as Furikaereba Yatsuga Iru'. His most famous role to date is that of the flamboyant character of Shintaro Imaizumi in the drama Furuhata Ninzaburo, also a Kōki Mitani creation.
With the release of the Kōki Mitani movie (also adapted from a play) Radio no Jikan in 1997, he won a bit of international acclaim for his portrayal of a radio producer. He was awarded Best Supporting Actor from the Japanese Academy Awards, Blue Ribbon Awards and others.
The Tokyo Sunshine Boys finally disbanded in 1998, but most of its actors, including Nishimura, continue to work on television today.
Read more about this topic: Masahiko Nishimura
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