Itō made his film debut at Toho in 1946,[1] and although mostly a prominent supporting actor—playing memorable figures such as the novelist in Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru—he also was cast in leading roles such as Kon Ichikawa's Mr.

[3] Film scholar Stuart Galbraith IV has noted that the "horse-faced actor...was a real chameleon, despite his instantly recognizable, distinctive features...[and] gives what may be the performance of his career [as] one of the all-time great Japanese movie villains.

[6] In 2008, Itō was one of the actors commemorated in the Seven Supporting Characters film festival held at the now-defunct[7] Cinema Artone in Tokyo's Shimokitazawa entertainment district.

[8] Tokyo's arthouse theatre Laputa Asagaya curated a 30-film retrospective in 2011 titled Great Character Actor of the Century: Fantastic Yūnosuke Itō.

[9] In July 2019, Tokyo's Cinemavera Shibuya celebrated the 100th anniversary of his birth by screening 11 of his films in a shared festival honoring Itō and actor Kō Nishimura.