Jerry Itô

**Jerry Itô** (ジェリー伊藤, *Jerī Itō*, July 12, 1927 - July 8, 2007) was a Japanese-American film and television actor, born as **Gerald Tamekichi Itō**, specializing in Japanese films throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He was a cousin of Japanese-American composer Teiji Itō.

## Jerry Itô

### Occupation

Actor
Stage performer
Singer

### Children

David Ito (son)
Michelle Ito (daughter)

### Family

Michio Itō (father)
Hezel Wright (mother)
Kisaku Ito (uncle)
Tamekichi ito (grandfather)

Son of dancer and choreographer Michio Ito, nephew of art director Kisaku Ito and actor Koreya Senda (birth name Kunio Ito). Jerry Ito is best known for playing the outrageously greedy Western businessman Clark Nelson in Mothra (1961), which was just one of many similar roles he played both in film and television. He appeared in NHK’s educational series “Let’s Play in English” from 1995 through 1997. Ito suffered a cerebral hemorrhage before the show finished broadcasting in 1997 and he was replaced by Dennis Falt.

## Career

The second son of Michio Ito, a legendary Japanese dancer and choreographer who was active in the United Kingdom and the United States. His mother, Hezel Wright, was a fellow dancer of Michio and had a son, Donald, in addition to Jerry. He is the nephew of Koreya Senda, an actor and director. His grandfather Tamekichi Ito is known as an architect who was in charge of designing the Hattori Watch Shop (Ginza) back in 1902.

His wife is Wakana Hanayagi (real name: Sakae Ito), a Japanese dancer, and the younger sister of writer Hitomi Yamaguchi. Two singers, David & Michelle, who were active in the 1970s, is a child of Jerry and Wakana.

Immediately after being born in New York, he moved to Los Angeles, where his father was imprisoned for spying on the outbreak of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Jerry and his family moved to a relative's home back to New York. Michio was detained in a camp in the Justice Ministry in Missoula, Montana for two years before being deported back to Japan and lost communication to his family. After the Pacific War, Jerry came to Japan as a US Marine and began looking for his father, and reunited with him who worked at the GHQ theater during the US occupation of Japan. After his military service, Ito returned to New York to study theater at The New School and made his Broadway debut with "All the President's Men," but he served again as a Lieutenant in the Korean War and returned to Japan in the 1950s to marry Wakana Hanayagi.

Ito met Wakana in New York while working at the theater. He played an active part in many movies and TV dramas such as the role of Clark Nelson in "Mothra", as well as in commercials and musicals. Known for singing Toi et Moi and Fubuki Koshiji's "Nobody's Sea" is a song written for Ito's "Song of the Week" that appeared in the "Norio Kijima Morning Show" (produced by NET )in 1967. In 1995, he has appeared in the 3rd series of NHK Educational TV program "Let's Play English", but in 1997, just before the final year of the series, which lasted for 3 years, he collapsed due to cerebral hemorrhage and dropped off halfway. He was succeded by Dennis Falt. However, since the footage recorded by 1996, including the opening, was used continuously, it was treated as an official performer in 1997 as well).

He died at his home in Los Angeles on July 8, 2007 at 8:00 am (Japanese midnight time) due to pneumonia at the age of 79. He survived by his wife and two children.