Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthdate
1953-05-17
Day of Death
2022-07-25
Place of Birth
Kumamoto, Japan
Yoko Shimada
Biography
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.
Filmography (40)
Kanon
2016
God in Jail
2016
The Faithless Love
2011
Mikkai
2011
I Want to Meet Yoko Shimada
2010
Dear Heart
2009
The Deep Red
2005
Black Corridor
2004The Making of Shōgun
2003
Undiscovered Tomb
2003
The Sino-Dutch War 1661
2001
Sister Yakuza, Bodhisattva Ryuko
2000
Gotoshi Co. Ltd. Special Police Department Crime Prevention Division No. 5104 Case
1995
Crying Freeman
1995
