Ken Takakura, a craggy-faced, quiet actor known for playing outlaws and stoic heroes in scores of Japanese films, has died of lymphoma at the age of 83.

Perhaps best known abroad for his police inspector role in Ridley Scott’s Black Rain in 1989, Takakura died on November 10 in a Tokyo hospital where he was being treated for the illness, according to his office and media report.

He shot to stardom after his 1956 debut, becoming famous for yakuza films such as Abashiri Prison in the 1960s.

Much of his appeal to the Japanese public stemmed from his image as a hero fighting authority figures on behalf of the poor and weak. But in a career spanning more than 200 films he sometimes played comic roles, such as his 1992 potrayal of a coach in Mr Baseball.

Likened to Clint Eastwood, Takakura starred in detective stories and dramas including the 1977 film The Yellow Handkerchief and 1999’s Railroad Man, which won him a best actor award at the Montreal World Film Festival.

The news of his death topped Japanese news programmes almost non-stop, and major newspapers distributed supplements in central Tokyo.