Sonny Chiba, the Japanese martial arts movie star who found late-career renown in Hollywood after outspoken admiration from Quentin Tarantino, has died aged 82 from a Covid-related illness. Variety reported that it had received confirmation of the news from Chiba’s agent. With an acting career beginning in the 1960s with a string of roles in Japanese martial arts films and TV shows, Chiba became widely known in the west after being name-checked in True Romance, the 1993 thriller written by Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott. By then, Chiba had become a star in Japan, appearing in titles such as the 1970s Street Fighter trilogy (and its spin-off, Sister Street Fighter), Bullet Train and Champion of Death. Born Sadaho Maeda in 1939 in Fukuoka, Chiba was a title-winning gymnast in his teens, before turning to karate and earning a black belt in 1965. (He would also achieve black belts in judo and kendo, among other martial arts.) Chiba had already embarked on his acting career, acquiring the nickname “Sonny” after the Street Fighter films proved a cult hit in the US. In the 80s, Chiba continued his prolific output, many in conjunction with director Kinji Fukasaku, including Virus, Samurai Reincarnation and Legend of the Eight Samurai. Chiba also started working as a stunt director and arranger, and starred in Japanese TV series such as the period drama Tokugawa Buraichō. Chiba’s elevated profile in Hollywood after True Romance led to his casting in Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 1 in 2003 as a sushi chef and master swordsmith, and subsequently as a yakuza boss in 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.