profile image

Yoko Shimada

May 17, 1953 - Jul 25, 2022 (69 years old) in Kumamoto, Japan

Kumamoto City-born Shimada Yoko is best known in the west as Mariko from the 1980 mini-series Shogun. The lady-in-waiting role created an interest in Japan and its culture overseas and introduced Japanese history to foreign audiences. She won the Golden Globe For Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama category and was nominated for a Prime-time Emmy Award for her work on the serial in 1981. Shimada, who spoke some English for the serial, had been acting for years prior to Shogun however. She began learning ballet since age three and wanted to become a ballerina until her high high school days. Her family had moved to Tokyo when she was eight. She obtained an agent and began acting while in junior high school. The TV serial Zoku Hyouten made her famous beginning 1970. She released a nude photo book, called Kir Royal, in 1992. She was 39 and the photo book became a bestseller shifting half a million copies. At 57 she starred in an 'AV' pornography video called Mikkai in 2011. This was a tribute to her body even at that age. Shimada has a reservation for a space burial.

Known For

poster
Ōgon no Hibi
Hosokawa Gracia
poster
Shōgun
Lady Toda Buntaro - Mariko
poster
腐蝕の構造
Majima Kumiko
poster
Tuesday Suspense Theater
poster
The Inugami Family
Tamayo Nonomiya
poster
Sunflower on the Hill
Yabe Fumi
poster
The Castle of Sand
Reiko Takagi
poster
Undiscovered Tomb
Ivy
poster
Crying Freeman
Lady Hanada
poster
The Hunted
Mieko

Credits

Images

image
image
image
image
image
image