The pioneers of the rock ¡®n¡¯ roll era on both sides of the Atlantic have now largely faded from the show-business scene ¡ª which is hardly surprising, given that those still strutting their stuff are in their 70s and 80s, and even ¡°The King¡± himself, Elvis Presley, who died in 1977, would be 77 today.
But in Japan, Mickey Curtis is still going strong as a musician five decades after he became a star of the nation¡¯s homegrown rockabilly boom ¡ª while as an actor, he is currently starring in a new Shinobu Yaguchi comedy film titled ¡°Robo-G.¡± Now 73, Curtis plays a lonely codger who finds a new purpose, as well as new troubles, impersonating a humanoid robot.
Born Michael Brian Kachisu on July 23, 1938, to a mother and father who were both of mixed British and Japanese ancestry, Curtis (a name he adapted from his similar-sounding birth name) spent the war years mainly in Shanghai with his parents. His musician father, however, performed a disappearing act with a Russian woman. After the war, his mother ¡ª together with a British man who was to become his stepfather ¡ª brought him and his sister back to Japan, where Curtis struggled to adapt to an unfamiliar country and culture.
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