Isuzu Yamada

Biography

Isuzu Yamada (山田 五十鈴, Yamada Isuzu, 5 February 1917 – 9 July 2012) was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career spanned seven decades. Yamada was born in Osaka as Mitsu Yamada, the daughter of Kusudu Yamada, a shinpa actor specialising in onnagata roles, and Ritsu, a geisha. Yamada debuted as a film actress in 1930 at age twelve, appearing in the Nikkatsu film Tsurugi wo koete. She soon became one of Nikkatsu's top actresses, but it was her portrayals of strong-willed modern girls in Kenji Mizoguchi's Osaka Elegy and Sisters of the Gion in 1936 at the new Daiichi Eiga studio that earned her popularity and critical acclaim. Moving to Shinkō Kinema and then to Toho, she became a star with Mikio Naruse's Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro (1938). During the second half of the 1950s, Yamada's main attention shifted towards the stage, but she still appeared in a number of distinguished films like Naruse's Flowing (1956), Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Twilight (1957) and Akira Kurosawa's The Lower Depths (1957) and Throne of Blood (1957). Other directors she worked with during this decade include Keisuke Kinoshita, Kaneto Shindō and Shirō Toyoda. In addition to her theatre engagements, she appeared on television, including the long-running Hissatsu series. Her last TV appearance was in 2002. Yamada died from multiple organ failure in Tokyo on 9 July 2012 at the age of 95. She was married four times, to actor Ichirō Tsukita, to producer Kazuo Takimura, to actor Yoshi Katō, and to actor Tsutomu Shimomoto. Her daughter with Tsukita, Michiko, became known as the actress Michiko Saga (1935–1992). Description above from the Wikipedia article Isuzu Yamada, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia​

Most Known For

Hissatsu Shigotonin

as Otowa

Throne of Blood

as Lady Asaji Washizu

Yojimbo

as Orin

Kurosawa

as Self

Akō Rōshi

as Riku

Minamoto no Yoshitsune

as Joban

Shogun's Samurai

as Oeyo

Fencing Master

as Oharu

The Lower Depths

as Osugi the Landlady

Tokyo Twilight

as Kisako Soma

Osaka Elegy

as Ayako Murai

A Billionaire

as Hanakuma

Black River

as Landlady

The Great Wall

as Dowager Empress

Suspicion

as Tokie Horiuchi

Flowing

as Otsuta

Shin Hissatsu Shigotonin

Buddha

as Kalideva

Bonchi

as Sei

Sisters of the Gion

as O-mocha