Japanese martial art legend and actor Sonny Chiba died on Thursday of COVID complications. He was 82.

After being infected with the coronavirus in late July, Sonny Chiba was admitted to a hospital in Kimitsu City, Chiba. He was also suffering from coronary pneumonia, local media reports state. He had been in a state of continuous oxygen inhalation but unfortunately died without recovering. Chiba’s agent and manager confirmed his death to Variety.

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In a career spanning five decades, Sonny Chiba appeared in some popular Japanese and American action films. He played Oyama in a trilogy of films, ‘Champion of Death’, ‘Karate Bearfighter’ and ‘Karate for Life’ in the late 1970s. A fourth-degree black belt, Chiba also held black belts in ninjutsu, shorinji kempo, judo, kendo and goju-ryu karate.

Chiba first appeared before the American audience in 1974 with ‘The Street Fighter’. He also worked with legendary director  Quentin Tarantino in ‘Kill Bill: Volume 1’. He also appeared in films like ‘Aces: Iron Eagle 3’, ‘Immortal Combat’ and ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’. 

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“The great Sonny Chiba passed away today at age 82, another victim of Covid-19. A martial arts legend with six black belts who started out in tokusatsu TV, Chiba made over 120 movies for Toei and was Japan’s most popular action star for decades. Watch one of his films today,” writer-director Ted Geoghegan wrote. 

“RIP to Sonny Chiba — legendary Japanese actor and martial artist. Besides his numerous martial arts movies, he also portrayed a live-action Golgo 13 in Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon (1977),” writer and podcaster Pat Contri tweeted. 

Sonny Chiba was born Sadaho Maeda in Fukuoka, Japan, on Jan. 22, 1939. He learnt martial arts while at Nippon Sport Science University in 1957. He studied under karate master Masutatsu “Mas” Oyama and earned a first-degree black belt in 1965.