Yōko Sugi
Japanese actress (1928–2019)
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Yōko Sugi (杉葉子, Sugi Yōko; 8 October 1928 – 15 May 2019) was a Japanese actress mainly active in the 1950s, who appeared in films of Mikio Naruse, Kinuyo Tanaka and Tadashi Imai.[1][2]
Yōko Sugi | |
|---|---|
杉葉子 | |
Sugi (left) and Setsuko Hara in Aoi sanmyaku | |
| Born | 28 October 1928 Koishikawa, Bunkyō ward, Tokyo, Japan |
| Died | 15 May 2019 (aged 90) Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation | Actress |
Biography
Sugi was born on 28 October 1928 in what is now Bunkyō ward, Tokyo, Japan. In 1945 she graduated from a Japanese high school in Shanghai.[3]
After returning to Japan in 1947, Sugi auditioned at Toho studio's "New Face" competition and received a contract.[4] She gave her debut in Tadashi Imai's 1949 Aoi sanmyaku, and performed in several other coming of age films.[4] She repeatedly appeared in films of Mikio Naruse such as Repast, Husband and Wife (Sugi's only starring role in a Naruse film, replacing Setsuko Hara)[5] and Sound of the Mountain, and in Kinuyo Tanaka's The Eternal Breasts and The Moon Has Risen.[1]
In 1962, Sugi married an American, retired from the entertainment industry, and moved to the United States, where she worked at the New Otani Hotel in Los Angeles.[4] Occasionally returning to Japan, she appeared in films like Shirō Toyoda's The Twilight Years. She served as a Japanese Cultural Envoy to the United States for the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2005.[6]
Sugi moved back to Japan in 2017. She died on 15 May 2019 of colon cancer in Tokyo.[3][4]
Filmography (selected)
- Aoi sanmyaku (1949)
- Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka (1950)
- Repast (1951)
- Tokyo Sweetheart (1952)
- Husband and Wife (1953)
- Sound of the Mountain (1954)
- Onna no Koyomi (1954)
- The Eternal Breasts (1955)
- The Moon Has Risen (1955)
- A Wife's Heart (1956)
- A Rainbow Plays in my Heart (1957)
- The Twilight Years (1973)
- Picture Bride (1994)