Remember the guy from cult 70s TV show Monkey? This is what actor Masaaki Sakai looks like now
MONKEY, known to some as Monkey Magic, swung onto our screens in the late 70s.
The high action Japanese series was based on a Chinese novel and became an 80s cult classic.
Main character Monkey, who according to the theme song was “born from an egg on a mountain top”, was played by Japanese performer and comedian Masaaki Sakai.
The skilled ape fighter became the king of the tribe and, as the song says was “the funkiest monkey that ever popped”.
But what became of this funky monkey?
Masaaki Sakai was a big deal in Japan before he starred in Monkey. He’d already acted in a number of TV shows and also had a couple of hit songs with his band, The Spiders.
But Monkey made him an even bigger star and Sakai told Rolling Stone the attention from fans during the show’s run was intense.
“I was mobbed with fans every morning who would wait for me as I went to work,” he said in 2000, before adding: “I would give them cans of juice”.
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He has been married twice and has two daughters and is also an active supporter of AIDs charities.
Father, philanthropist, racer… he’ll always be Monkey to us.
Masaaki is now 75-years-old and a popular Japanese performer, known as a car enthusiast in Japan, he competes in motor races and is also a keen archer.