Noboru Ando

Who is Noboru Ando?

Noboru Ando is a Japanese film actor known for his yakuza roles. In fact, Ando was a real-life yakuza gang boss before becoming an actor in 1965, when he appeared in a film about himself, Chi to Okite. He later wrote, produced and starred in a series of films about his life and his former gang, the Ando-gumi. He also notably appeared in several films by Kinji Fukasaku.

One clear sign of his past occupation is the large knife scar on his left cheek, the result of a brawl with a Korean gangster as a young man. According to Ando, acting came easily to him as a result of his underworld life: "In Japanese, the only difference between yakuza and yakusha is one hiragana character," he was quoted in the Japan Times as saying. "All yakuza have to be actors to survive."