Actor and comedian Seki Keiroku, a semi-regular in the “Otoko wa Tsurai Yo” (popularly known as “Tora-san”) movie series, passed away yesterday from pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital. He was 78. He first came down with pneumonia last September and had been in and out of hospital since. During a brief recovery, he made his last stage appearance at a theater in Asakusa, Tokyo’s old “shitamachi” (downtown district) whose strip clubs had been the launching pad of his career decades before. In June he moved to a “barrier free” house in the capital, but only spent a total of ten days in his new home. Seki made his name in the 1950s as part of the Asakusa-based comedy trio “Three Pockets” with Atsumi Kiyoshi (1928-96), who went on to play the role of Tora-san, and Tani Kenichi. The Tora-san series had 48 movies over a period of 27 years, making it the longest-running in the world. Seki played the role of Ponshuu in the first two movies, reappearing from #26 till the series ended. He also narrated the “Benny the Ball” character in the Japanese TV version of popular 60s U.S. cartoon “Top Cat” (known here as Doraneko Taisho).
• Talento Nakamura Yuma (36) has given birth to her first child in the U.S. Nakamura divorced from Maeda Koyo (38), formerly the leader of 80s Johnny’s Jimusho group Otokogumi, in 2003. In April she maried a 52-year old American lawyer and is currently living in Los Angeles. Maeda got remarried to comedienne Umihara Tomoko just this week.
• The latest issue of women’s weekly “Josei Seven” reveals that comedian Hamaguchi Yu (34) and popular talento Ogura Yuko (22) are romantically involved. The magazine photographed the couple walking Hamaguchi’s dog near his home. Hamaguchi is one half of the comedy duo Yoiko. His partner, Arino Shinya (34), married former talento Kitamura Yuko in February 2005. Ogura, popularly known as Yukorin, plays up her hyper-cutesy image and claims to be from the planet Korin.