Robert Baldwin, the Canadian-Japanese actor known to fans as Ramirez/KyoryuCyan in Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger, died on Dec. 26 after a two-year battle with colon cancer, according to a statement from his daughter. He was 59.
"It was my father's influence that led me to enter the entertainment industry," his daughter, Ariga Rei, said on X, formerly known as Twitter. "My father has always been my biggest fan, he would come to all my concerts and performances, and he would record my TV shows and burn them onto DVDs."
私が芸能界に入ったのは父の影響でした。
— 有賀 零（ありが れい） (@ariga_rei) January 4, 2025
父はいつでも私の大ファンでいてくれて、ライブも舞台も駆けつけてくれて、テレビも録画してDVDに焼いてました笑
親バカで照れ臭かったから本人には言ってませんが、辛い時にも頑張れたのは父の応援があったからです。 pic.twitter.com/QsesGeyPCI
Ariga went on to say that when she heard her father was in critical condition, she remembered what he once told him: "I want you to see me off with a smile when I die."
"It's sad to say goodbye, but the many memories my father gave me help me smile even in difficult times," she said.
Baldwin was born to Canadian parents in Kyoto and raised in Hiroshima. When he was around 14 years old, his family moved back to Canada and he finished school there. He dabbled in performance in high school. In the mid-1990s, he came back to Japan. He worked odd jobs including truck driving until he saw an advertisement for extras to appear on a television show.
"It looks interesting enough, it'll be some cash in my pocket to tide me over until I get myself a real job," he said in a 2014 Tokusatsu Network interview. "And I never got myself a real job after that."
On set, he did some on-the-spot translation, which led him to do some translating work for media.
Baldwin had parts in various television shows, video games, movies and music videos, including as Gordo in Toho's Chosei Kantai Sazer-X and a small part in Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger DELUXE: Abare-Summer is Freezing Cold. He also had small non-speaking roles in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Final Wars.
"I've come to the conclusion that I'm no longer capable of holding one job and doing that," he said. "I get bored too easily. Where I keep on doing all these different jobs and then all the jobs that I do also have a variety within the work."
When he got the call to be involved in Kyoryuger in 2012, he was happy to be involved in another tokusatsu. When he was called down for a fitting, he started to realize it was a bigger role.
"And then I look at the script that they give me and it actually has a name for the character. Not only a name for the character but also a color," he recalled. "Ramirez? I mean, I'm thinking, I don't look like a Ramirez is what I'm thinking. But at the same time, Sean Connery was also Ramirez for Highlander."
He most recently reprised his role via voiceover in the film Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger vs. Kyoryuger.
Besides his onscreen work, Baldwin worked as a translator, narrator and copywriter.
A private funeral was held on Dec. 30
