Martial arts actor with an economical style who starred in The Street Fighter and later in Kill Bill and Immortal Combat

In the early 1990s Quentin Tarantino helped extend Sonny Chiba’s appeal beyond the martial arts enthusiasts who had admired the actor’s work for decades. Chiba, who has died aged 82 from Covid-19, had already made more than 120 movies by that point. But it was in Tarantino’s screenplay for True Romance (1993), directed by Tony Scott, that many western viewers first heard his name.

Clarence, the amiable hero played by Christian Slater, declares Chiba to be “bar none, the greatest actor working in martial arts movies today”. He then spends his birthday watching a triple-bill of the actor’s explosively violent films.