Golden Globe-winning Japanese actor Shimada Yoko passes away at 69
Jul 26, 2022
Washington [US], July 26 : Japanese actor Shimada Yoko, who won a Golden Globe for playing Mariko in the 1980s television drama "Shogun," passed away at the age of 69.
According to Variety, she passed away on Monday in a hospital in Tokyo from multiple organ failure brought on by colorectal cancer.
Shimada made her television debut in the drama "Osanazuma" in 1970. Shimada was born in 1953 in Kumamoto, a city on the southern island of Kyushu. She rose to fame in the 1970s by portraying morally upright characters on television and in movies, such as the 1974 smash "The Castle of Sand."
She received one of the few English-speaking roles in "Shogun" despite her low proficiency with the language when she was chosen to play Mariko (also known as Lady Toda Buntaro), the love interest of Richard Chamberlain's shipwrecked British navigator turned samurai. Shimada won her first and only Golden Globe for playing an aristocratic woman who sacrifices herself to save the life of her foreign lover.
After "Shogun" became a global hit, Shimada continued to work in Japan, primarily in television, while also taking on other parts in Hollywood. One such worldwide undertaking was "Little Champion," a 1981 movie starring Shimada about Japanese-American marathoner Michiko "Miki" Suwa Gorman.
However, Shimada found herself in the middle of a scandal in 1988 after a liaison with married rock singer Uchida Yuya was made into tabloid fodder. She allegedly struggled with drinking and racked up debts, which she attempted to pay off by participating in a nude photo book in 1992. Although the book was a successful seller, it hurt her career as an actor. When she made an appearance in an adult video in 2011, she sort of hit a low point. Her final on-screen appearance was in the Saiga Toshiro drama "Kanon" from 2016.
