
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.

Black Rain
1989 · as Sato

Proof of the Man
1977 · as Detective Munesue

Ameyuki-san
1979 · as Shinzaburō

A Homance
1986 · as Kaze

The Beast to Die
1980 · as Kunihiko Date

The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf
1979 · as Tetsuya Asakura

Kagero-za
1981 · as Shungo Matsuzaki

The Execution Game
1979 · as Shohei Narumi

The Family Game
1983 · as Yoshimoto

The Classroom of Terror
1976

The Killing Game
1978 · as Shohei Narumi

Detective Story
1983 · as Shuichi Tsujiyama

No Grave for Us
1979 · as Katsuo Shima

Rape Hunter: Target Woman
1980 · as Insurance Salesman

A Chaos of Flowers
1988 · as Takeo Arishima

Wuthering Heights
1988 · as Onimaru

The Assassination of Ryoma
1974 · as Yûta

Horror of the Wolf
1973 · as Dō Haguro