Though he had the well-appointed bone structure of the 1950s matinee idol, it was Tatsuya Nakadai’s eyes that seized film audiences. Using these huge brown saucers to telegraph naivety or eerie self-possession, the Japanese actor, who has died aged 92, seemed at times to be able to make them protrude from his skull.
In the centrepiece scene of Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 King Lear adaptation Ran, when Nakadai’s warlord is ejected from his burning castle, his glare of incipient madness is unbearable.
