Japanese Shogun actress Shimada Yoko has died

Shimada Yoko, the Japanese actress who won a Golden Globe for her role as Mariko in the 1980 miniseries Shogun – led by Richard Chamberlain – died at the age of 69.

Japanese media reported that he died Monday from multiple organ failure due to colorectal cancer in a Tokyo hospital.

Yoko died on Monday at 12:57 pm due to multi-organ failure caused by the colorectal cancer that the actress suffered, according to reports published by several media.

Fight cancer in secret

Yoko had been battling cancer for three years for 3 years before her death and that she had communicated her condition only to family and friends, as well as having been hospitalized and discharged on several occasions.

Given the actual secrecy that the artist’s inner circle has managed to maintain, especially as regards the media, the sad news has aroused more surprise and pain in the local artistic environment.

From Kumamoto

Born in 1953 in Kumamoto, a city on the southern island of Kyushu, Shimada made her television debut in the 1970 drama film. Osanazuma.

Despite her limited English speaking skills, she had one of the few roles where she speaks English Shogun when she was cast in the role of Mariko (also known as Lady Toda Buntaro), love interest of Richard Chamberlain’s shipwrecked British navigator turned samurai.

He became popular in the 1970s playing straight and virtuous characters on television and in movies, including the 1974 hit The Sandcastle.

However, his portrayal of an aristocratic woman who dies saving the life of her foreign lover earned Shimada his first and only Golden Globe.

The series, an adaptation of James Clavell’s novel, was a huge success in the United States, but was screened in Japan in a theatrical version that disappointed at the box office. NBC, Paramount Television, Asahi National Television, Toho Company, and trading company Jardine Matheson all had production credits.

After the worldwide success of ShogunShimada has acted in other roles in Hollywood, while continuing to work in Japan, mainly on television. One of these international projects was Little Championa 1981 biopic of The Japanese-American marathon runner Michiko Miki Suwa Gorman with Shimada in the title role.

various scandals

But Shimada was involved in a scandal when an affair with married rock star Uchida Yuya became a tabloid subject in 1988. It was reported that she had problems with alcohol and accumulated debts which she tried to repay by appearing in a nude photo book in 1992.

The book was a bestseller, but it damaged her position as an actress. And more when she appeared in an adult video in 2011. Her last on-screen role was in the 2016 Saiga Toshiro drama, Kanon.

CJL