Onoe Matsunosuke was a Japanese actor. He was initially an actor with an itinerant kabuki troupe. In his autobiography, he claimed that he had made his stage debut as early as 1880, in a performance given by the Tamizo Onoe company. Fascinated by the stage, he left his home by the age of 14 to travel with a troupe, and by 1892, he was acting under the stage name Onoe Tsurusaburo. In 1905, he adopted the more prestigious name Onoe Matsunosuke.

His troupe regularly performed at a theater in Kyoto owned by Shozo Makino, and as a kabuki actor, he was known for his extravagant stage tricks. In 1909, Makino was approached by Yokota Shokai, a film import and exhibition company, to produce movies, and he began to film scenes from the theater's performances. He made his movie debut in "Goban Tadanobu" that year. His troupe proved consistently popular, and Makino chose him to star in his future movies.

He starred in hundreds of films; the 1925 "Araki Mataemon" was advertised as his 1,000th film. He played the lead characters in almost all dramatizations of stories published by Tachikawa Bunko. He and his troupe also remained closely associated with Makino for over a decade, and Makino directed him in 60 to 80 films per year, ultimately accounting for about half his total output. In addition to films based on kabuki, he and Makino pioneered the jidai-geki (historical film) genre. He also popularized the subgenre of ninja films.

His films were well-received, earning him the affectionate nickname "Medama no Matchan" ("Eyeballs" Matsu), after his large eyes. He was especially popular among children, who took to imitating his ninja performances in their games. Many film historians consider him the first superstar of Japanese cinema because of his prolific output and his constant popularity.

Many of his works were short films; however, he also starred in feature-length movies. One of these, the 1910 "Chushin-gura", is believed to be the oldest still-existing feature film, although the print is not complete: it is missing four scenes. Including "Chushin-gura|, only six of his films survive in lengths of at least one reel. Like many other early Japanese films, his works were largely destroyed by a combination of inadequate preservation in Japan's climate, the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, and the bombing during and occupation following World War II.

In 1926, while on the set of Kyokotsu Mikajiki, he collapsed. He died later that year of heart disease. His funeral was the subject of a 1926 documentary, "The Funeral of Matsunosuke Onoe".

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