The pioneers of the rock 'n' roll era on both sides of the Atlantic have now largely faded from the show-business scene — which is hardly surprising, given that those still strutting their stuff are in their 70s and 80s, and even "The King" himself, Elvis Presley, who died in 1977, would be 77 today.

But in Japan, Mickey Curtis is still going strong as a musician five decades after he became a star of the nation's homegrown rockabilly boom — while as an actor, he is currently starring in a new Shinobu Yaguchi comedy film titled "Robo-G." Now 73, Curtis plays a lonely codger who finds a new purpose, as well as new troubles, impersonating a humanoid robot.

Born Michael Brian Kachisu on July 23, 1938, to a mother and father who were both of mixed British and Japanese ancestry, Curtis (a name he adapted from his similar-sounding birth name) spent the war years mainly in Shanghai with his parents. His musician father, however, performed a disappearing act with a Russian woman. After the war, his mother — together with a British man who was to become his stepfather — brought him and his sister back to Japan, where Curtis struggled to adapt to an unfamiliar country and culture.