He is often described as filling the spot for Kurosawa that Ward Bond filled for John Ford--an ever-present and reliable character player who consistently supplied a solidity and strength to whatever film he appeared in. He was definitely a finer actor than Bond, of the most versatile "chameleons" in the world cinema, with an enormous range in sublime interpretations, from Ikiru (1952)'s diffident clerk to the leader of The Seven Samurai is Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954).