Umeki, Miyoshi (1929—)

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Umeki, Miyoshi (1929—)

Japanese-born American actress who won an Academy Award for her performance in Sayonara. Born in 1929 in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan.

Miyoshi Umeki began working as a radio and nightclub singer when she was still a teenager in Japan. In the 1950s, she came to the United States, where she first appeared on television. Her American breakthrough came with a role in Sayonara (1957), an adaptation of the James Michener novel set during the Korean War, starring Marlon Brando and Miiko Taka . Umeki won an Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Supporting Actress; she then appeared on Broadway in Flower Drum Song. The actress later returned to television in "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," and made a number of other films, including Cry for Happy (1961), Flower Drum Song (1961), The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962), and A Girl Named Tamiko (1963).

Kelly Winters , freelance writer