Kinuyo Tanaka | |
---|---|
Kinuyo Tanaka in Jinsei no onimotsu (1935)
|
|
Born |
Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan |
November 29, 1909
Died | March 21, 1977 Japan |
(aged 67)
Years active | 1924–1976 |
Spouse(s) | Hiroshi Shimizu (1927–1929, not legally married) |
Awards |
Mainichi Film Concours Best Actress 1975 Sandakan No. 8 1949 Yoru no onnatachi 1948 Joyū Sumako no koi Mainichi Film Concours Best Supporting Actress 1961 Otōto 1958 Stepbrothers |
Kinuyo Tanaka (田中 絹代 Tanaka Kinuyo?, 29 November 1909 – 21 March 1977) was a Japanese actress and director. She had a career lasting over 50 years with more than 250 credited films, and was best known for her roles in collaboration with director Kenji Mizoguchi over 15 films between 1940 and 1954. She was also a second cousin to director Masaki Kobayashi.
Tanaka was born in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan. Her first credited film appearance was in 1924 in “A Maid of the Genroku Era” in 1924, which also marked the start of her affiliation with the Shochiku Studios. She married director Hiroshi Shimizu in 1929 after appearing in a number of his films in the 1920s. Although they divorced after less than a year, she later played in a number of films directed by her ex-husband.
She became a leading actress at an early age, appearing in Yasujirō Ozu's I Graduated, But... in 1929. The following year she played the lead in Aiyoku no ki, and in 1931 she appeared in Japan's first talkie, The Neighbor's Wife and Mine, directed by Heinosuke Gosho. In the 1930s, she became so popular that the titles of her films used her name, as in "The Kinuyo Story" (Kinuyo Monogatari) in 1930, "Doctor Kinuyo" (Joi Kinuyo sensei) in 1937 and "Kinuyo’s First Love" (Kinuyo no hatsukoi) in 1940. In 1938, she starred in Hiromasa Nomura’s Flower in Storm (愛染かつら Aizen-Katsura) with Ken Uehara, which was the highest-grossing movie of the prewar period. In 1940, she worked for the first time with Kenji Mizoguchi, starring in "A Woman of Osaka" (Naniwa Onna), which has not survived. It marked the start of her transition to more challenging roles.