was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator.

His most well known and famous role was portraying Arsène Lupin III in the Lupin III series from 1971 to 1995. He was also the official Japanese dubbing voice actor of Clint Eastwood and Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Early life Yamada was born in Tokyo, Japan. Coming from a family of government officials, Yamada's father worked for the Bank of Japan, but died when Yamada was three years old. After that, he was raised by his mother.

In 1945, Yamada entered the prestigious Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya High School. While in school, he was passionate about baseball, but he also loved movies and even took time off from classes to go to the cinema. One day, he was attracted to Danny Kaye's comical performance in the comedy film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), and began to yearn to be a comedic actor who could perform comedies that amuse others.

When Yamada took the university entrance examination, he applied to the University of Tokyo. His reason for applying, according to him, was that it was "the only university in the Tokyo Big6 Baseball League where the level is low and you can get regular playing time.". and he was not accepted. However, his grades at the time of graduation were relatively good, so it was not necessarily a reckless challenge.

Career Early career Yamada began his career after entering the School of Letters at Waseda University, where he joined a theater club.

In 1953, Yamada passed the examination for the Mingei Theatre Company, which was said to be the most difficult theater company in Japan at the time, and dropped out of college to join the company as a research student. However, he could not do the comedy he wanted to do and could not endure the rigorous basic training every day, so he left the company after one year and became a freelancer.

After turning freelance, Yamada appeared on radio and television through acquaintances. In 1958, Kazuo Kumakura, with whom he had worked on several programs, invited him to join the Theater Echo, a theatrical troupe that focused on comedy, and he made his first stage appearance.

1958-1990s Theatre Echo was poor at the time, and in order to fund its operations, the company members took on voice acting jobs on the side, and Yamada was asked to do voice acting soon after joining the company. Yamada was asked to dub for Gary Merrill, who stars in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "The Manacled". However, Yamada, who had been given the lead role immediately after joining the troupe and had an inflated ego, gave 5 NGs during rehearsals at the recording studio due to his inexperience in acting, and was eventually dropped from the role just before the performance after the staff criticized his performance. Yamada felt frustrated at this time and at the same time reflected on the fact that he had been very naive in his thinking. The next day, he made a fresh start, went back to his roots, and started rehearsing the play from the basics, which he continued to do with great desperation.

In 1959, he made his debut as a voice actor when he was selected by audition to dub for Clint Eastwood's Roddy in "Rawhide". The film was a hit, and Yamada became so famous that the public recognized him as "Yasuo Yamada who dubbed for Clint Eastwood," and this was the beginning of his career as a voice actor. Thereafter, Yamada did both voice acting and stage work at the same time. At Theater Echo he became a signature actor, appearing in performances of plays by Hisashi Inoue. In addition to Clint Eastwood, Yamada would also dub for Jean-Paul Belmondo. In animation, he was cast as Lupin III in 1971, a role he played for years until his death, becoming his life's work. He also worked as a TV personality, hosting the comedian audition program "", and appeared in many TV shows.

From the 1980s, his work as a TV personality and narrator increased, and other than narration, the majority of his voice acting work consisted of reprising his roles or one-offs. He had been away from stage work since 1978 due to his busy schedule, and although he expressed a desire to return several times, this was ultimately his last appearance (Including his voice, his last stage was "The Sunshine Boys" in 1984.).

Later years In 1994, Yamada was hospitalized for hypokalemia. From around this time, he became ill and was repeatedly hospitalized and discharged due to difficulty walking. More and more recordings in his later years were done sitting down. On February 17, 1995, he collapsed at home due to a brain hemorrhage and was transferred to Hospital. His family tended to him every day, but Yamada's condition suddenly changed after the withdrawal on the night of March 18, and he died on March 19 at the age of 62. His ashes are buried in Tama Cemetery.

Personal life and character Yamada was known for his cheerful and jovial personality, often cracking jokes and sarcastic remarks to make others laugh. On the other hand, he also has a shy and serious side, and during interviews, he could be seen candidly expressing his own opinions about his performance and work while bashfully stating them. His way of life was regarded as a pursuit of "", and he himself has made statements that are seen as affirming this.

He joked in an interview that he became an actor so he could oversleep.

Yamada married in 1965 and has one son and one daughter. However, due to Yamada's strong desire not to reveal his personal life, his family did not appear in the media at all, and their names were only revealed at his funeral. Note that only the eldest son has since become a writer of rakugo and other forms of entertainment, and his name is credited on several TV programs.

Beliefs

His favorite word is "If I had to say, 'freedom, and his motto is "To have no convictions". Yamada said, "One never knows how long one will live. I hate the act of holding a silly belief and presenting it off to the people around me as if it intimidates them."

Yamada was assertive, but avoided direct interference with personal values and preferences. Yamada commented, "I am not a child either. I can speak out to please my fans like an honor student. But if I keep doing that, I will feel suffocated, and eventually I will be crushed. The world is made up of people with different ways of thinking. That's fine. It is dangerous if everyone thinks the same way. It opens the way to Fascism. I don't interfere with others no matter what they think. That is the absolute condition for protecting my freedom".

He preferred comedies. According to him, "I love doing silly things that don't add up to anything, and I love doing them hard".

Yamada had a strict work ethic that sometimes made his co-stars tense in the on-site recording studio. He would also become furious and walk out of the studio when things did not make sense with the staff, but all of this was done to represent the feelings of the performers, and he was respected by many of his peers.

Yamada, who also valued acting, thoroughly adhered to his stance that "there is no independent profession called 'voice actor,' and that 'voice acting' is one of the various jobs an 'actor' does". Also, He said, "An actor does not play a role but manipulates the role," and all acting was done in his natural voice.

Clint Eastwood Yamada was also the official Japanese dubbing voice actor of Clint Eastwood.

The beginning of it goes back to Rawhide, a career breakthrough Eastwood has long sought. Yamada dubbed Eastwood's Rudy Yates in this Western series. This was a huge success, and fans have come to call it "Eastwood's voice is Yamada," and its fame continues to this day. There were times when another person dubbed Eastwood, but most of the work was later redo dubbed by Yamada due to many protests from fans saying "Eastwood's voice is strange."

Yamada has often said in interviews since the 1970s. "In Rawhide, Eastwood was a naïve young man, and I was young and just starting out, so it was a natural fit. But after A Fistful of Dollars, he became more and more of a masculine actor, while I became more of a lightweight comedian kind of actor. To be clear, I don't think my Eastwood dubbing I do now is the best." Also, Yamada's voice and Eastwood's voice are very different, but he said that this is a matter of habituation.

But there are episodes like this. For the dubbed version of White Hunter Black Heart, a new translator created the script. However, when Yamada read it, he told the translator, "He wouldn't talk like that!" and immediately rejected the script.(According to co-star Shuichi Ikeda, there was nothing unnatural about the script, but he remarked, "Since Mr. Yamada said so, it must have been true.") also, In an interview, Yamada himself said, "Unlike other dubbings, I feel relieved when I see Eastwood on the screen during recording." "There is something different from likes and dislikes and characters."

Yamada and Eastwood met only once by the cast of Rawhide came to Japan in 1962. At this time, Yamada and Eastwood worked together for several days. Yamada talked about this memory in 1987. "He was a very good young man at that time, and he had a shy and naive atmosphere. At that time, I didn't think he would be a manly actor like he is now." In addition, Yamada carefully preserved the autographed colored paper presented by Eastwood at this time as a "lifelong treasure". and said that the two had been Exchange letters for a while after returning to Japan.

After Yamada died at the end of the dubbing of A Perfect World, various people dubbed Eastwood, but none of them became popular and did not take root. But in 2009 that will change. There was a scene where Yamada was not dubbed in For a Few Dollars More, and Yōhei Tadano was dubbed as a substitute for Yamada in the DVD release. Tadano was a junior member of the theater company to which Yamada belonged, and his acting and voice were very similar to those of Yamada. After this, Tadano was dubbed in several works as a replacement for Yamada, and began dubbing Eastwood from The Mule. In an interview, Tadano said, "Eastwood's acting is important, but I acting with 100% respect for Mr. Yamada."

Lupin III Yamada's most famous role was that of Arsène Lupin III in the Lupin III anime franchise, whom he voiced from 1971 until his death in 1995.

He appeared in many TV shows as a TV personality, and his voice, speech, and even his appearance were similar to Lupin's, making him a prominent example of the identification of the actor and the character in Japan.

Casting

In 1969, Yamada was cast in the stage production of . However, the script by Hisashi Inoue was something that could not be handled by established acting techniques, and he was very troubled by the role. Then, the director gave Yamada a clipping of the original story of "Lupin III" by Monkey Punch, which was published in a magazine at the time, saying that it would be helpful. At first, Yamada thought, "It's outrageous that reading Manga is your advice to me", but once he started reading it, he was immediately attracted to the content and became hooked. After that, he began to buy "Lupin" magazines, and at the same time, he incorporated the "essence" of Lupin in the manga into his own roles.

Then, on the day of the stage performance, Masaaki Osumi, who happened to be looking for a voice actor for Lupin, was in the audience that day. Osumi was so fascinated by Yamada's performance that he felt as if "Lupin were alive right in front of his eyes". After the performance, Osumi immediately approached Yamada even though he had never met him before. When Yamada heard Osumi's proposal, he replied, "I'll do it!" and he immediately accepted the offer to appear in the series without even going through an agent.

Episode

Yamada was deemed by director Osumi to be "already established in the role" and finished recording without passing a single discussion from the Part 1 of the Lupin series.