Noboru Ando, Japanese actor and yakuza, Died at 89

  Actor

Noboru Ando was born on May 24, 1926, and died on December 16, 2015.

He was a Japanese actor and former yakuza.

Noboru is known for utilizing his experiences as a criminal in his many roles in yakuza films.

One clear sign of his past occupation was the large knife scar on his left cheek, the result of a brawl with a Korean gangster as a young man.

Noboru Ando was born in Higashi, Ōkubo, Tokyo, the oldest of four children to a father of samurai descent.

After going to primary school in Yokohama he entered junior high in Manchuria, where his father was working, but returned to Tokyo to live with relatives when he was expelled.

Noboru was expelled from another school after only three months and began running with other delinquents, before being sent to a reformatory school for theft.

He entered the military for pilot training in 1943 and in 1945 volunteered for a suicide frogman unit, though the war ended before he saw action.

When he returned to Tokyo, he entered Hosei University, although Noboru continued his gangster behaviour and dropped out in 1948.

Noboru Ando passed away at age 87 in December 2015.