Actor Brad Lesley dead at 54
Best known in the UK in recent times for his role on Challenge TV’s Takeshi’s Castle; the Japanese based game show. The former baseball star died at the weekend aged just 54.
The actor’s former wife, Chiho Svimonoff, spoke to TMZ, stating the performer had spent the last seven months in a nursing home where he was receiving dialysis. He was moved to a Marina del Rey hospital on Saturday where he later died.
Brad Lesley became a Japanese personality thanks to his years as a baseball player in both the USA and Japan. He took on the long running ‘character’ of ‘Animal’ on Takeshi’s Castle with was originally produced between 1986 and 1990, however has been re-edited by Challenge in the UK over the past few years making it a guilty pleasure with cheeky commentary by actor Craig Charles.
Brad first appeared in the original run of 1986 from episode 72 onwards and became a love-to-hate figure on the show as contestants feared facing him as he battled to keep them from making it through their game challenges including often pushing them into dirty water.
Born in California he became “Mr Baseball” when in 1982 he pitched for the Cincinnati Reds. In 1984 he switched to the Milwaukee Brewers and a year later once more relocated, joining the Hankyu Braves where for two seasons he wowed the Japanese professional league.
The Japanese loved his style Hollywood reporter notes. In an interview he gave in 1987 he noted,
“After they found out [my style] was part of my intensity, an act of intimidation, they loved it,” he said in a 1987 interview. “I haven’t toned down any part of my act.”
The bearded 6-foot star was renowned for this theatrical style in sport from dramatically thrusting his fist in the air to stomping around the mound when he had success in the game. He also turned to more serious acting with roles in movies such as Mr. Baseball, Big Monster on Campus, Gatling in Little Big League, A Boy Called Hat and Space Jam to name a few.
Update: Challenge said of Brad, “We are sad to hear of Brad Lesley’s passing at the weekend. We all love a bit of Animal…”