Professor Toru Tanaka

Professor Toru Tanaka

Born: January 6, 1930
Died: August 22, 2000
in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Was an American professional wrestler, professional boxer, college football player, soldier, actor, and martial artist who, in fighting rings, was also known as Professor Toru Tanaka, or simply Professor Tanaka. He also taught martial arts in Dallas,Texas. His skills were taught to young men with potential for football greatness. He was located directly across from Southern Methodist University. His students included many All American football players including David Randle. Randle’s training began on his 5th birthday. Randle went on to become one of the most awarded high school football players in Texas history. After high school he played at SMU for one season in 1981. He then transferred to UCLA, where he was part of 2 Rose Bowl victories in 1983 and 1984. Randle always honored Professor Tanaka with the most important influence in the football techniques he used his entire life. (Wikipedia)

Movies for Professor Toru Tanaka...

Hard Justice
Title: Hard Justice
Character: Cookie (uncredited)
Released: July 15, 1995
Type: Movie
When A.T.F. agent Nick Adams goes undercover in a prison to unravel the mystery of a fellow agents death there. Warden Pike and his pet goons are involved in all kinds of corrupt activities; dope dealing and gun smuggling to name a few.
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The Life And Times of Paul Boesch
Title: The Life And Times of Paul Boesch
Character: Himself (archive footage)
Released: April 1, 1994
Type: Movie
Documentary on legendary Houston Wrestling Promoter Paul Boesch produced and aired in 1994 on Houston Channel 39 KHTV.
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Title: Burke's Law
Character: Sumo #1
Released: January 7, 1994
Type: TV
Burke's Law, a revival of the 1960s cop television series of the same name, aired on CBS from 1994 to 1995. The series centers on Amos Burke, a senior Los Angeles police officer and millionaire, and his son, Peter, who is a detective under his command.
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Last Action Hero
Title: Last Action Hero
Character: Tough Asian Man
Released: June 18, 1993
Type: Movie
Following the death of his father, young Danny Madigan takes comfort in watching action movies featuring the indestructible Los Angeles cop Jack Slater. After being given a magic ticket by theater manager Nick, Danny is sucked into the screen and bonds with Slater. When evil fictional villain Benedict gets his hands on the ticket and enters the real world, Danny and Jack must follow and stop him.
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3 Ninjas
Title: 3 Ninjas
Character: Rushmore
Released: August 7, 1992
Type: Movie
Each year, three brothers Samuel, Jeffrey and Michael Douglas visits their Japanese grandfather, Mori Shintaro whom the boys affectionately refer to as Grandpa, for the summer. Mori is a highly skilled in the fields of Martial arts and Ninjutsu, and for years he has trained the boys in his techniques. After an organized crime ring proves to be too much for the FBI, it's time for the 3 brother NINJAS! To use their martial arts skills, they team up to battle the crime ring and outwit some very persistent kidnappers!
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Alligator 2: The Mutation
Title: Alligator 2: The Mutation
Character: Tokyo Joe
Released: December 18, 1991
Type: Movie
A giant mutated alligator runs riot in a small town after the sewer system washes it into a lake.
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Deadly Game
Title: Deadly Game
Character: Ikiru-Sun
Released: July 10, 1991
Type: Movie
A group of seven strangers, including a dancer, a doctor, a teacher, and a disgraced former football player, are brought together on an island owned by the mysterious Osirus. There they are told that at some point in their lives, they crossed Osirus and now must face his revenge. The seven must reach a boat on the opposite side of the island before Osirus and his hunters track them down and kill them.
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The Perfect Weapon
Title: The Perfect Weapon
Character: Tanaka
Released: March 15, 1991
Type: Movie
Jeff, a young delinquent, is enrolled by his father in a kenpo school, in the hopes of teaching the boy some self-discipline. Years later, Jeff's mentor, Kim, is being threatened by one of the Korean mafia families. Jeff tries to help his old friend, but is too late to prevent Kim's death at the hands of an unknown hitman. Vowing revenge, Jeff takes on all of the families, using his martial arts skills to find the man who killed his friend.
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Martial Law
Title: Martial Law
Character: Jimmy Kong
Released: October 1, 1990
Type: Movie
An undercover cop teams up with a martial-arts expert to stop a gang of drug smugglers and car thieves.
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Darkman
Title: Darkman
Character: Chinese Warrior #2
Released: August 24, 1990
Type: Movie
Dr. Peyton Westlake is on the verge of realizing a major breakthrough in synthetic skin when his laboratory is destroyed by gangsters. Having been burned beyond recognition and forever altered by an experimental medical procedure, Westlake becomes known as Darkman, assuming alternate identities in his quest for revenge and a new life with a former love.
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Secret Agent 00 Soul
Title: Secret Agent 00 Soul
Character: (uncredited)
Released: February 1, 1990
Type: Movie
James Brown III, also known as Secret Agent 00 Soul, is an elite international operative who finally tells off the government and fulfills his longtime dream of opening a detective agency in his hold neighborhood. His once plush workspace is no a ramshackle hole-in-the-wall above a chicken and ribs joint, and instead of being surrounded by glamourous female agents, the is being shaken down by his son Junior, a 400-pound ne'er-do-well who wouldn't know hard work if it hit him in the face. Nonetheless, 00 Soul is able to transform an unlikely bunch of misfits into the wackiest group of oddball detectives ever to hit the 'hood.
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Black Rain
Title: Black Rain
Character: Sugai's Man
Released: September 22, 1989
Type: Movie
Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. However, in Japan he manages to escape, and as they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game—the Japanese way.
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Hyper Space
Title: Hyper Space
Character: Android
Released: April 1, 1989
Type: Movie
In the 21st Century, the "Corporation" sends a spaceship to dispose of earth's severe nuclear waste to a distant region in the cosmos. The astronauts awaken from their "cryo-sleep" to truly cry over finding themselves marooned... their fuel is not sufficient to bring them back home. The shuttle craft on board that can accommodate no more than two passengers presents the only hope, and soon a "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" type of distrust and betrayal sets in, until one by one, only one sole survivor remains.
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Dead Heat
Title: Dead Heat
Character: Butcher
Released: May 6, 1988
Type: Movie
Detective Roger Mortis is killed in action while investigating a string of mysterious robberies: until he's brought back from the dead with a chemical company's secret re-animation technology. Now he has twelve hours to solve the case of his own death before he dies: And stays dead.
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The Running Man
Title: The Running Man
Character: Subzero
Released: November 13, 1987
Type: Movie
By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where “runners” attempt to evade “stalkers” and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free.
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Catch the Heat
Title: Catch the Heat
Character: Dozu
Released: October 1, 1987
Type: Movie
Gorgeous Checkers Goldberg, a police detective, goes undercover as a stripper in order to stop a ruthless kingpin who has been using unsuspecting starlets in order to smuggle drugs into the United States. With her hot looks, street smarts and martial arts prowess, Goldberg seems to have everything she needs to catch this violent criminal -- and will stop at nothing to get the job done.
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Shanghai Surprise
Title: Shanghai Surprise
Character: Yamagani San
Released: August 29, 1986
Type: Movie
Glendon Wasey is a fortune hunter looking for a fast track out of China. Gloria Tatlock is a missionary nurse seeking the curing powers of opium for her patients. Fate sets them on a hectic, exotic, and even romantic quest for stolen drugs. But they are up against every thug and smuggler in Shangai.
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The Best of the WWF: volume 7
Title: The Best of the WWF: volume 7
Character: Prof. Toru Tanaka
Released: June 6, 1986
Type: Movie
The Best of WWE brought to you on home video!
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Bad Guys
Title: Bad Guys
Character: Lord Percy's Bodyguard
Released: March 14, 1986
Type: Movie
Two LA cops turn to professional wrestling for money and revenge after being suspended from the force for a bar brawl.
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Tag Team Champions
Title: Tag Team Champions
Character: Professor Toru Tanaka
Released: March 1, 1986
Type: Movie
A tribute to the WWF's dynamic duos precision, timing, and teamwork that make them champions.
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Volunteers
Title: Volunteers
Character: Sumo Guard
Released: August 16, 1985
Type: Movie
After his rich father refuses to pay his debt, compulsive gambler Lawrence Bourne III joins the Peace Corps to evade angry creditors. In Thailand, he is assigned to build a bridge for the local villagers with the help of American-As-Apple-Pie WSU Grad Tom Tuttle and the beautiful and down-to earth Beth Wexler. What they don't realize is that the bridge is coveted by the U.S. Army, a local Communist force, and a powerful drug lord. Together with the help of At Toon, the only English speaking native, they must fight off the three opposing forces and find out what is right for the villagers, as well as themselves.
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Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Title: Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Character: Butler
Released: July 26, 1985
Type: Movie
The eccentric and childish Pee-wee Herman embarks on a big adventure when his beloved bicycle is stolen. Armed with information from a fortune-teller and a relentless obsession with his prized possession, Pee-wee encounters a host of odd characters and bizarre situations as he treks across the country to recover his bike.
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Missing in Action 2: The Beginning
Title: Missing in Action 2: The Beginning
Character: Lao
Released: March 1, 1985
Type: Movie
Prequel to the first Missing In Action, set in the early 1980s it shows the capture of Colonel Braddock during the Vietnam war in the 1970s, and his captivity with other American POWs in a brutal prison camp, and his plans to escape.
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Best of the WWF Volume 2
Title: Best of the WWF Volume 2
Character: Prof. Toru Tanaka
Released: January 1, 1985
Type: Movie
Gorilla Monsoon hosts this second volume of some of the best WWF has to offer.
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Chattanooga Choo Choo
Title: Chattanooga Choo Choo
Character: Hashimoto
Released: May 18, 1984
Type: Movie
The owner of a professional football team must restore the titular train and run it from Tennessee to NYC in 24 hours if he is to inherit $1 million in this comedy.
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Title: Airwolf
Character: Bandit King
Released: January 22, 1984
Type: TV
As part of a deal with an intelligence agency to look for his missing brother, a renegade pilot goes on missions with an advanced battle helicopter.
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Revenge of the Ninja
Title: Revenge of the Ninja
Character: Sumo Servant
Released: September 7, 1983
Type: Movie
After his family is killed in Japan by ninjas, Cho and his son Kane come to America to start a new life. He opens a doll shop but is unwittingly importing heroin in the dolls. When he finds out that his friend has betrayed him, Cho must prepare for the greatest battle he has ever been involved in.
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Off the Wall
Title: Off the Wall
Character: Banzai Wrestler #1
Released: July 1, 1983
Type: Movie
Two young hitchhikers are picked up a speed-crazed young woman, who tears around the countryside. She leaves them to take the blame for her activities, and they find themselves sentenced to six months in prison. The girl, feeling bad about what she did to them, resolves to break them out of the prison
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Title: Wizards and Warriors
Released: February 26, 1983
Type: TV
A sword-and-sorcery adventure series done tongue-in-cheek. It's set in a mythical kingdom where good Prince Erik Greystone helps the kindly king fight the forces of evil.
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Title: The A-Team
Character: Ling, the Bodyguard
Released: January 23, 1983
Type: TV
A fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel work as soldiers of fortune while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit."
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Title: The A-Team
Character: Fröbe
Released: January 23, 1983
Type: TV
A fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel work as soldiers of fortune while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit."
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Title: Tales of the Gold Monkey
Released: September 22, 1982
Type: TV
In a backwater corner of the South Pacific in 1938, a young American adventurer and his ragtag group of friends become involved in death-defying hi-jinx, transporting people-on-the-run in a well-worn Grumman Goose seaplane.
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Modesty Blaise
Title: Modesty Blaise
Character: Akira
Released: January 1, 1982
Type: Movie
Pilot for a never-made TV series based upon the popular comic strip character. Adventurer Modesty Blaise and knife thrower Willie Garvin - retired ex-criminals living in California with driver Weng - first save and then protect a young computer expert from a criminal organization, led by the evil Debbie La Forge. .
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Title: The Fall Guy
Released: November 4, 1981
Type: TV
Hollywood stuntman Colt Seavers picks up some extra pocket money by using his rough-and-tumble skills to track and capture bail jumpers.
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An Eye for an Eye
Title: An Eye for an Eye
Character: The Professor
Released: August 14, 1981
Type: Movie
Sean Kane is forced to resign from the San Francisco Police Department's Narcotics Division when he goes berserk after his partner is murdered. He decides to fight alone and follows a trail of drug traffickers into unexpected high places.
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Title: Little House on the Prairie
Released: September 11, 1974
Type: TV
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert, and Karen Grassle, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s.