Ono Eiichi, better known by his stage name Tsuruta Koji, was a Japanese actor and singer. He appeared in almost 260 feature films and had a unique style of singing. His daughter, Tsuruta Sayaka, is an actress.

Born in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Tsuruta was raised in Osaka by his grandmother, following his parents' divorce. A delinquent in high school, he finished second from the bottom of his class.

Tsuruta was studying at Kansai University when he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service in 1944. After the war he joined Takada Hirokichi's theater troupe and made his film debut at Shochiku in 1948 with Yukyo no Mure, gaining a female following for playing handsome leads. He left Shochiku in 1952 to start his own production company.

He joined Toei in 1960 and found success with 1963's Jinsei Gekijo: Hishakaku. For the next decade, Tsuruta was the lead star of Toei yakuza actors and their hardest working, starring, or guest-starring in a film every month at his peak. Tsuruta was also a successful singer, scoring hits with such songs as "Kizudarake no Jinsei".

However, in the 1970s he struggled and his performances were criticized when the yakuza genre shifted to a modern more realistic setting. He made his last film in 1985, Saigo no Bakuto. Tsuruta Koji died from lung cancer on June 16, 1987, at the age of 62.

(Source: Wikipedia) Edit Biography