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Handsome leading man of stage and screen Eiji Okada was among the first post-WWII Japanese actors to gain international popularity. He also played a key role in breaking down the war-era stereotypes of Japanese men, proving in Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) that they were as capable of being suave, articulate, and sexy as any Frenchman. In 1963, Marlon Brando personally convinced Okada to play a leading role in The Ugly American (1963). In Japan, his most famous film role is that of the hapless scientist who is trapped in a sand pit with an enigmatic woman in Hiroshi Teshigahara's haunting Suna No Onna (Woman of the Dunes) (1964).