Ryuhei Matsuda (松田 龍平, Matsuda Ryūhei; born May 9, 1983) is a Japanese film and television actor. Matsuda's best known film roles include the young and desirable samurai Sōzaburō Kanō in Taboo and the rock star Ren Honjo in Nana.
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Early life
Matsuda was born on May 9, 1983 in Tokyo, to Yūsaku Matsuda, a Japanese actor of partial Korean ancestry, and Miyuki Matsuda (née Kumagai), a Japanese actress. He has two younger siblings, a younger brother, Shota Matsuda, who is also an actor, and a younger sister, Yuuki Matsuda, who is a singer, and one older half-sister by his father's first marriage. His father died from bladder cancer in 1989, when Ryuhei was six years old. He attended Horikoshi High School, a Japanese high school that caters to celebrity students, but did not graduate.
Career
At age 15, Matsuda was offered the role of the desirable young samurai Kanō Sōzaburō in Nagisa Ōshima's 1999 film Taboo. The role helped boost him from an entirely unknown actor to a film star, earning him a Japanese Academy award "Newcomer of the Year", as well as "Blue Ribbon", "Kinema Junpo", and "Yokohama Film Festival" Awards for the "Best New Actor".
Since appearing in Taboo, Matsuda has played a wide range of roles, from the high school student Kujo in the 2001 film Blue Spring to the rock star Ren Honjo in the 2005 film Nana. In February 2013, it was revealed that Matsuda would play the part of a Japanese gangster in the sequel to the 2012 Indonesian film The Raid, named Berandal.
In 2020 portrayed Ryūnosuke Akutagawa in the film A Stranger in Shanghai. It depicts Akutagawa's time in as a reporter in the city.
Personal life
Matsuda is married to Mala Morgan, a British-Japanese model with whom he has a fourteen-year age gap. The two wed on October 20, 2021 after dating for three years and have one son together, born March 12, 2022.
Matsuda was previously married to Russian-Japanese actress and model Rina Ōta. They have one child together, a daughter, born July 4, 2009. They wed on January 11, 2009 and divorced in December 2017.
Filmography
Films
Taboo (1999)
Shibito no Koiwazurai (2001)
Hashire! Ichiro (2001)
Blue Spring (2002)
Collage of Our Life (2003)
17 Sai (2003)
9 Souls as Michiru (2003)
Hachigatsu no Kariyushi (2003)
Showa Kayo Daizenshu (2003)
Cutie Honey (2004)
Izo (2004)
Otakus in Love (2004)
Yasha no Ike (2004)
Nana (2005)
Gimmy Heaven (2005)
Rampo Noir (2005)
Demon Pond (2005)
Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006)
Nightmare Detective (2006)
Chosyu Five (2006)
Sekai ha Tokidoki Utsukushii (2007)
Purukogi (2007)
Koisuru Madori (2007)
Ahiru to Kamo no Koinrokkâ (2007)
Densen Uta (2007)
Nobody to Watch Over Me (2008)
TV dramas
San Oku-Yen Jiken (2000), Roku
Hagetaka (2007), Osamu Nishino
Ashita no Kita Yoshio (2008), Heita Yashiro
Tenchijin (2009), Date Masamune
Mahoro Ekimae Bangaichi (2013), Haruhiko Gyōten
Amachan (2013), Takuma Mizuguchi
Quartet (2017), Tsukasa Beppu
Kurara: The Dazzling Life of Hokusai's Daughter (2017), Zenjirō
Kemono ni Narenai Watashitachi (2018), Kosei Nemoto
Smoking (2018), Masayuki Sakakibara
Yuganda Hamon (2019), Masahiko Sawamura
Idaten (2019), Kenzō Tange
A Stranger in Shanghai (2019), Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Okehazama (2021), Shibata Katsuie
My Dear Exes (2021), Hassaku Tanaka
Uzukawamura Jiken (2022), Iwamori
Tokyo Salad Bowl (2025), Ryo Arikino
Asura (2025), Katsumata
Simulation: Defeat in the Summer of 1941 (2025), Hirohito
Sai: Disaster (2025), Shin'ichiro Kuramoto
Awards
Matsuda won a Japanese Academy Award for the "Best Supporting Actor" in the 2011 film Tantei wa Bar ni Iru, and Nikkan Sports Film Award for the "Best Actor" in the 2013 film The Great Passage.