Known in the West primarily for supporting roles in such films as Akira Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well and Yojimbo, Kihachi Okamoto's Sword of Doom, Yoshitaro Nomura's Zero Focus, and Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp, Nishimura also played leading roles throughout his career.

[1] He won the Blue Ribbon Awards for best supporting actor in 1964 for Unholy Desire directed by Shohei Imamura.

[2] In Japan, Nishimura is well known for playing the role of the title character in the long-running television jidaigeki series Mito Kōmon from 1983 to 1992.

[2] He also portrayed the voice of the "Mamo/Howard Lockewood" in the original Japanese version of anime film The Mystery of Mamo in 1978.

In July 2019, Tokyo's Cinemavera Shibuya honored him with a film festival celebrating both Nishimura and Yūnosuke Itō, another popular character actor who attained high status in Japan's entertainment industry.