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Shin’ichi “Sonny” Chiba, the Japanese actor and martial arts icon with roles in American films like Kill Bill and The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift, has died of COVID. His agents confirmed the news to Variety earlier today. He was 82.

Chiba’s on-screen career spanned from the 1960s all the way through the 2010s, with the actor starring in a slew of Japanese titles in addition to a handful of popular American films. His projects tended to show off his expert martial arts skills, and he later went on to help choreograph fight sequences.

Chiba was born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1939, and he began learning martial arts while at the Nippon Sports Science University in 1957 when he was just a teenager. He earned his first-degree black belt in 1965, later earning black belts in ninjutsu, shorinji kempo, judo, kendo, and goju-ryu karate.

His career in film and television began in 1960, when he starred in Japanese superhero shows like Seven Color Mask and Messenger of Allah, starring as the lead in both programs. His first movie rolls were in a series of crime thrillers by Kinji Fukasaku, later going on to star in Invasion of the Neptune Man in 1961.

The actor went on to star in his first martial arts movie Karate Kiba around a decade later in 1973. His U.S. breakthrough role was just a year later in 1974, where he starred in the X-rated The Street Fighter.

In Quentin Tarantino’s famed Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Chiba starred as Hattori Hanzo, a retired swordsman and aide of Uma Thurman’s main character, the Bride. The Bride meets Hattori at his sushi restaurant, looking for a new blade which which to make her kills.

He also made an appearance in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the third installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. He starred as Kamata, antagonist Takashi’s (Brian Tee) uncle in the film.

Chiba’s other credits included The Bullet Train, Champion of Death, The Storm Riders, Karate Warriors, Doberman Cop, Shogun’s Samurai, G.I. Samurai, along with many others. His last credited role was in the short Shakespeare in Tokyo.