Best known the world over for his performance as Tiger Tanaka in the 007 entry You Only Live Twice and well known to genre fans as the fire and brimstone spouting environmentalist Dr. Nishiyama in Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974), Tetsuro Tamba is perhaps one of Japan's very greatest thespians. Born the son of Emperor Meiji's own physician, he joined Shintoho in 1951 and began appearing in films for the studio shortly thereafter before his contract ran out in 1959, whereupon he went freelance and began starring in films for various companies such as Toho and Toei. Having never refused a role, he's appeared in everything from disaster films to yakuza films to samurai films to war films to exploitation films and has performed in films as acclaimed as Kwaidan (1965) and as trashy as the Shintoho production Female Slave Ship. He was most frequently cast by director Kinji Fukasaku, most notably in Fukasaku's anti-war drama Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (1972). Tamba has even appeared in a handful of Hong Kong productions, including Chang Cheh's The Water Margin and the infamous kung fu gore spectacular The Story of Ricky. He is still acting in films to this day, including in Takashi Miike's recent films Happiness of the Katakuris and Gozu.

Acting Toho Filmography
Daredevil in the Castle (1961) - Sadamasa Ishikawa
Assassination (1964) - Hachiro Kiyokawa
Kwaidan (1965) - Warrior, Kwaidan
Goyokin (1969) - Rokugo Tatewaki
The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan (1970) - Soshun Kochiyama
Battle of Okinawa (1971) - Isamu Cho, Lieutenant
Silence (1971)
Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (1972) - Katsuo Togashi, Sergeant
Shadow Hunters (1972)
Shadow Hunters 2: Echo of Destiny (1972)
Submersion of Japan (1973) - Yamato, Prime Minister
Human Revolution (1973)
Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974) - Ryougen Nishiyama, Doctor/Genkei Nishiyama/Gengaku Nishiyama
Conflagration (1975) - Munekata, Captain
Continuing Human Revolution (1976)
Zero Pilot (1976) - Saito, Captain
The Alaska Story (1977) - Arashuk
The Imperial Navy (1981)
Zero (1984) - Isoroku Yamamoto
Tokyo Blackout (1987) - Nakata
Tokyo: The Last War (1989)
The Cat Returns (2002) - Cat King