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 edit
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) edit
- 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)
References edit
- ^ a b "杉葉子". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 21 July 2023.
- ^ "杉葉子". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 21 July 2023.
- ^ a b "俳優の杉葉子さん死去「青い山脈」ヒロイン役 90歳 (Actress Yoko Sugi dies at 90)". The Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese). 23 May 2019. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
- ^ a b c d "Japanese film actress Yoko Sugi dies at 90". The Mainichi. 24 May 2019. Archived from the original on 24 May 2019. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
- ^ Russell, Catherine (2008). The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity. Durham and London: Duke University Press. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-8223-4290-8.
- ^ "List of Japan Cultural Envoys". Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 15 August 2019.