Yoshiko Okada

Birthday: 1902-04-21
Deathday: 1992-02-10
Birthplace: Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
Gender: Female
Owned By: Unowned

Yoshiko Okada (岡田 嘉子, Okada Yoshiko, 21 April 1902 – 10 February 1992) was a Japanese actress. She was one of the most popular actresses in Japan during the late 1920s and early 1930s. She entered the film industry in 1923 and quickly rose to fame by appearing in numerous films. During the transition from silent films to sound films, Okada continued acting but faced increasing competition from younger actresses. Her popularity declined as new stars emerged in the 1930s. She was among the first actresses to replace onnagata (men playing female roles) in Japanese cinema and became famous for portraying modern, independent women, reflecting social shifts in 1920s–30s Japan. Her love life and relationships with directors were widely reported, contributing to her celebrity image.

In 1938, she fled to the Soviet Union with her lover, the stage director Ryokichi Sugimoto. Soon after arriving in the Soviet Union, both were arrested during the Great Purge. Sugimoto was executed. Okada was sentenced to ten years in a labor camp. After her release, she remained in the Soviet Union and worked in theatre. She became involved in theatrical activities in Moscow, learning Russian and integrating into Soviet theater. For many years, she was believed to have died. In 1972, it was revealed that she was still alive. She briefly returned to Japan in 1973, attracting considerable media attention. Okada later returned to the Soviet Union, where she lived until her death in 1992.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Yoshiko Okada, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Credits

	Year	Title	Character
	1986-03-21	Life of Don Matsugoro
	1978-09-23	August Without Emperor	Kaneda
	1978-04-29	Orange Road Express
	1976-07-23	Tora-san's Sunrise and Sunset	Shino
	1976-04-03	Niizuma no wananaki
	1962-03-24	Ten Thousand Boys
	1957-03-04	Rice
	1935-11-21	An Inn in Tokyo	Otaka
	1934-07-14	With a Single Sword Bale
	1934-06-28	Our Neighbor, Miss Yae	Kyouko
	1934-02-01	Mother of the East	Madame Osato (Ken's biological mother)
	1933-11-16	Daphne	Yuka Taniguchi
	1933-11-09	Love	Machiko
	1933-04-01	A Woman Crying in Spring	Ohama
	1933-02-09	Woman of Tokyo	Chikako
	1932-12-16	No Blood Relation	Tamae Kiyooka
	1932-12-01	The Loyal 47 Ronin	Orui
	1932-11-24	Until the Day We Meet Again	Woman
	1927-03-18	Five Women Around Him
	1926-07-14	The Passion of a Woman Teacher	Ohisa
	1926-05-21	日輪　前篇
	1925-04-17	Daichi wa hohoemu dainihen
	1925-04-17	Daichi wa hohoemu daisanpen
	1925-02-13	The Conjuror in the Town
	1923-03-15	Skull Dance	その娘お絹