Trivia

Had plastic surgery in 1956 which included cheek injections that gave him his trademark, big-round-cheek look.

He studied theatre at Nihon University.

Shishido is best known in the West for films he made with Suzuki, e.g. Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards! (1963) and Gate of Flesh (1964). His best known film internationally is Suzuki's Branded to Kill (1967), in which he starred as the number three hitman in Japan. The film received only moderate success on its original release, due largely to poor promotion by Nikkatsu stemming from the studio's growing disaffection with Suzuki, which ended with the director's firing. Shishido later recalled seeing the film with friends and finding the theater nearly deserted.

Began his acting career in 1954.

Nikkatsu action movies began to lose favour through the late 1960s and production was scaled back resulting in fewer jobs for Shishido. He began taking roles with other companies and in television, which were primarily of a comic nature.

Though he worked predominantly in comic action roles, Shishido also gained a tough-guy loner image in such films as Seijun Suzuki's Youth of the Beast, (1963) in which he played an ex-cop who infiltrates two rival yakuza gangs.

In Japan, he is also known by the nickname Joe the Ace for his popular role in the Western Quick Draw Joe (1961).

Brother of Eiji Gô.

Father of Kai Shishido.

He also starred in Nikkatsu "new action" films such as the all-star vehicle Yakuza Bird of Passage:Bad Guys' Work (1969), with Akira Kobayashi and Tetsuya Watari, and Bloody Battle (1971). In 1971, Shishido ended his contract and left the failing company, which had transitioned into softcore roman porno ("romantic pornography") films in order to stay profitable.

In 1952, he graduated from high school and enrolled in the theatre course at Nihon University. Two years later, he auditioned for the Nikkatsu Company's New Face contest. He was one of 21 selected from 8,000 applicants. Shishido dropped out of school and began working for Nikkatsu, appearing in small film roles.

His roles in Kaizo Hayashi's Mike Hama: Private Eye (a play on Mike Hammer) trilogy marked a reemergence of his tough-guy persona. The trilogy included The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994), The Stairway to the Distant Past (1995) and The Trap (1996).

On February 4, 2013, his house was destroyed in a fire. He was not at home at the time, and no one was injured.

He was a Japanese actor most recognizable for his intense, eccentric yakuza film roles and his artificially enlarged cheekbones.

He appeared in some 300 films but is best known in the West for his performance in the cult film Branded to Kill (1967).