
Yūsaku Matsuda was a Japanese actor. He was born in Shimonoseki, to a Japanese father and a Zainichi Korean mother. He became an actor when he was 23 as a rookie police officer for the 1970s Japanese TV detective drama called Taiyō ni hoero! Apart from this role, his other defining role on television was in Tantei monogatari. He featured in many other TV shows and movies. He won the award for best actor at the 8th Hochi Film Award for Detective Story and The Family Game. He specialized in physical action movies. The 1989 movie Black Rain — directed by Ridley Scott and starring Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia— opened the door for Matsuda as an international actor. However, shortly after he made this movie, he died due to bladder cancer. He was survived by his second wife and three young children.

Big City: Days of Struggle
TV • 1976

Murder in the Doll House
MOVIE • 1979

Black Rain
MOVIE • 1989

Detective Story
TV • 1979

Zoku zoku jiken
TV • 1980

Fushoku no kōzō
TV • 1977

Bark at the Sun
TV • 1972

Wuthering Heights
MOVIE • 1988

Kagero-za
MOVIE • 1981

Proof of the Man
MOVIE • 1977

Red Maze
TV • 1974

Nettaiya
TV • 1983

The Beast to Die
MOVIE • 1980

Yokohama BJ Blues
MOVIE • 1981

The Four Roughnecks
MOVIE • 1974

Detective Story
MOVIE • 1983

A Homance
MOVIE • 1986

The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf
MOVIE • 1979