and influential figures in Japanese professional wrestling history, nicknamed "the Father of Puroresu". According to the official website of the city of Minato, Rikidōzan was introduced to professional wrestling while visiting a gym in Shiba where Sakata and his colleague Bobby Bruns were training for an upcoming match. Bruns would become Rikidōzan's first ever opponent. He joined Sakata and Bruns in their tour of Japan, wrestling a series of matches across the country in which Rikidōzan soundly beat his foreign opponents, among them retired heavyweight boxer Joe Louis, helping to establish his popular reputation. The tour lasted until January 1952, at which point most of the wrestlers returned to America. Sakata remained for another few months, during which time he met and married his wife. He would be granted permanent residency in Japan and live there with his family for some time, but eventually moved back to America due to the constant back-and-forth travel. Tag-team success Sakata returned to America in 1952, and had his first televised match on May 26 on a card that included former judoka Masahiko Kimura and Kinji Shibuya. It was during this period that Sakata adopted the ring name Tosh Togo - Tosh was a shortened form of his given name "Toshiyuki" and Togo was derived from early 20th-century Japanese admiral Tōgō Heihachirō. Sakata was billed as the kayfabe brother of Great Togo, as well as Masutatsu Oyama as "Mas Togo" and judoka Kokichi Endo as "Ko Togo". As a tag team, Sakata and Great Togo held the NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Championship. Sakata also tagged at various times with Rikidōzan (with whom he won the All Asia Tag Team Championship) and King Curtis Iaukea (with whom he won the NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship). He was also at various times the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship, the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship, and the NWA World Tag Team Championship (with Red Berry). Acting career Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli took notice of Sakata because of his heavy build—he stood 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) and weighed 284 lb (129 kg)—which, when coupled with his intimidating gaze, made him the perfect choice for the part of Oddjob. Another story, told by director Guy Hamilton, stated that he'd first seen Sakata wrestling in Australia. Sakata had never acted before, besides pro wrestling, but the film character was to be mute (other than