Sonny Chiba, the Japanese actor and martial arts legend who appeared in American films like Kill Bill Volume 1 and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, died on Thursday from COVID complications. He was 82 years old.

Chiba “studied under karate master Masutatsu ‘Mas’ Oyama and earned a first-degree black belt in 1965,” according to Variety. “In 1984, he received a fourth-degree black belt. He also held black belts in ninjutsu, shorinji kempo, judo, kendo, and goju-ryu karate.” He began his acting career in the early 1960s, while his breakthrough international hit came in 1974 with The Street Fighter. The hyper-violent film, and its sequels Return of the Street Fighter and The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge, caught the attention of a young Quentin Tarantino, who references Chiba in True Romance; he also played swordsman Hattori Hanzo in the first Kill Bill movie. Chiba had another fan in Hollywood in Keanu Reeves, who met his hero while doing promotion for John Wick: Chapter 2.