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.

Most Known For

Shōgun

as Lady Toda Buntaro - Mariko

My Champion

as Miki

Crying Freeman

as Lady Hanada

Ōgon no Hibi

as Hosokawa Gracia

Tuesday Suspense Theater

The Hunted

as Mieko

The Inugami Family

as Tamayo Nonomiya

The Castle of Sand

as Reiko Takagi

Fushoku no kōzō

as Majima Kumiko

Dead Angle

Labyrinth Romanesque

as Tae Akimoto

Sunflower on the Hill

as Yabe Fumi

Minamoto Yoshitsune

as Kaneuri Kichiji

Truckster Goes to Hokkaido

The Deep Red

as Dr. Tanaka

Dog of Fortune

as Reiko Kitamori

Nagare no Fu Part I: Disturbance, Part II: Dawn

I Am a Cat

as Yukie

Lupin the Thief: Enigma of the 813

as Mrs. Kesselbach

Go Go Kamen Rider

as Hiromi Nohara