Makio Inoue


Makio Inoue was a Japanese actor and voice actor.
He is most well known for his two longstanding roles as the titular character in Captain Harlock from 1978 through the 1980s and 1990s and Goemon Ishikawa XIII in Lupin III from 1977 to 2011.

Career

Having grown up watching mobile theater troupes, Inoue dreamed of becoming an actor; by the time he was in high school, he was appearing in television movies. He also admired poets, and derived his stage name, Makio, from his pen name at the time.
Around 1960, he and a friend founded a theater company influenced by Underground culture and began working as stage actors. However, due to financial difficulties maintaining the theater, he decided that he had to earn money. It was then that he was invited by an acquaintance to audition for the Japanese dub of the television series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and was chosen for the lead role, which was the beginning of his career as a voice actor.
In 1968, he voiced Mitsuru Hanagata in the animated television series Star of the Giants. His role in the anime was well-received, and he was given more opportunities to play cool, beautiful young men and the main character's rivals.
By the 1970s, he had established an idol-like popularity that led to the establishment of a fan club and was considered one of the “top three most popular voice actors in Japan.
Starting in 1977, he voiced Goemon Ishikawa XIII in the Lupin III series, which became one of his best-known roles. Inoue was hired to replace Chikao Ohtsuka, but was told by the director at the time that the character of Goemon had changed from Chikao's “hard-killing man” to a “young, beautiful-faced swordsman” and that the voice actor had changed to him. Inoue thus gave his own personality to the character, without being conscious of Chikao's. Inoue later said affectionately of Goemon, “He is an important character who has influenced me in many ways in my life". He also said that the best part of acting is “giving a presence from a few lines".
He voiced the titular character in Captain Harlock from 1978 through the 1990s.
In the 1980s, as his popularity began to wane, he scaled back his voice acting activities and began to focus more on his stage career. He later became a buddhist monk and built his own temple in Chiba Prefecture. In addition to his work as an actor and voice actor, including voicing Master Eraqus in the Kingdom Hearts series, he began to go on regular training trips, including retreats deep into the mountains to sit in zazen meditation in order to attain enlightenment. Since then, he wore samue and geta to recordings and visited studios on a moped motorcycle.
In 2011, Inoue dropped the role of Goemon at the request of the production company, being succeeded in the role by Daisuke Namikawa.
In the 2000s, he began a relationship with dancer Sui-sei, whom he met through stage work. In 2017, he opened an Twitter account and resumed his interactions with his former fans; in 2019, he launched a "lifetime project" and a YouTube channel.
On November 29, 2019, Inoue died at his home in Chiba Prefecture due to worsening angina pectoris, a chronic illness, at the age of 80.

Filmography

Television animation

;1960s
;1970s
;1980s
;1990s
;2000s
;2010s

OVA

Theatrical animation

Video games

Tokusatsu

Dubbing