(born Miiko Shikata July 24, 1925 – January 4, 2023) was an American actress, popular for her film and television roles from the late 1950s until the early 1980s. Her best known role was as an elegant Japanese dancer starring with

Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th century,''Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia''

in the drama ''

Sayonara ''Sayonara'' is a 1957 American romantic drama film directed by Joshua Logan, and starring Marlon Brando, Patricia Owens, James Garner, Martha Scott, Miyoshi Umeki, Red Buttons, Miiko Taka and Ricardo Montalbán. It tells the story of a ...

''. She also acted in several other films and TV shows with fellow performers such as

Miyoshi Umeki was a Japanese American singer and actress.Bernstein, Adam"Actress Miyoshi Umeki, 78, Dies of Cancer" ''The Washington Post''. 5 September 2007. Umeki was nominated for the Tony Award and Golden Globe Award and was the first East Asia-born woman ...

James Garner James Scott Garner (né Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014) was an American actor. He played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, which included ''The Great Escape (film), The Great Escape'' (1963) with Steve McQueen; Paddy Ch ...

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an American comedian, actor, entertainer and producer with a career that spanned nearly 80 years and achievements in vaudeville, network radio, television, and USO Tours. He appeared ...

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English and American actor. Known for his blended British and American accent, debonair demeanor, lighthearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing, he ...

, and

Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor and producer. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades over a lengthy career, he is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time. He often played hypermasculine characters and was noted for his commandin ...

Early years

Taka was born on July 24, 1925 in Seattle, but raised in Los Angeles as a

Nisei is a Japanese language, Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the nikkeijin, ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants, or . The , or Second generation imm ...

; her parents had immigrated from Japan. In 1942, following the signing of

Executive Order 9066 Executive Order 9066 was a President of the United States, United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. "This order authorized the fo ...

, she was interned with her family at the Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona.

Career

After

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Kathleen Hepburn ( Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Holly ...

, director

Joshua Logan Joshua Lockwood Logan III (October 5, 1908 – July 12, 1988) was an American theatre and film director, playwright and screenwriter, and actor. He shared a Pulitzer Prize for co-writing the musical '' South Pacific'' and was involved in writing ...

's first choice for the role of Hana-ogi, turned him down, he looked to cast an unknown actress. Taka, who at the time was working as a clerk at a travel agency in Los Angeles, was discovered by a talent scout at a local Nisei festival. Although she had no previous acting experience, ''Variety'' gave her a positive review in their review of the film.

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

gave her a term contract as a result of her performance in ''

''. After ''Sayonara'', she worked in films with James Garner, Bob Hope, Cary Grant,

Glenn Ford Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006), known as Glenn Ford, was a Canadian-born American actor. He was most prominent during Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age as one of the biggest box-office draws of th ...

and Toshirō Mifune (alongside whom she also worked in the 1980 television miniseries '' Shõgun''). She also served as an interpreter for Mifune and

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...

when they visited Hollywood.

Personal life

Taka married Japanese-American actor

Dale Ishimoto Dale Ishimoto (April 3, 1923 – March 4, 2004) was an American actor of Japanese descent. He was born in Delta, Colorado in 1923 and was raised in Guadalupe, California. Military service After being sent to the Gila River internment camp in Ar ...

in Baltimore, Maryland in 1944, and they had one son, Greg Shikata, who works in the film industry, and one daughter. They divorced in 1958. Taka married Los Angeles television news director Lennie Blondheim in 1963. She resided in Las Vegas, Nevada. Following Blondheim's death in 2002, she married Reginald Hsu in 2003. Taka died on January 4, 2023, at the age of 97. She is interred at

Rose Hills Memorial Park Rose Hills Memorial Park is a cemetery and mortuary located in Whittier, California. It is an affiliate of Service Corporation International (formerly Loewen Group) and is the largest cemetery in North America. Sites ; Mausoleums * Whittie ...

Motion pictures

References

External links