Machiko Kyō
Early life and education. Kyō, an only child, was born in Osaka in 1924. Her father left when she was five years old, and she was raised by her mother and grandmother. She adopted Machiko Kyō as her stage name when she entered the Osaka Shochiku Kagekidan in 1936 at age 12. She trained as a revue dancer before entering the film industry through Daiei Film in 1949. Two years later, she achieved international fame as the female lead in Akira Kurosawa's film "Rashomon", which won first prize at the Venice Film Festival and stunned audiences with  its nonlinear narrative. Career. Kyō starred in many more Japanese productions, including Kenji Mizoguchi's "Ugetsu" (1953), Teinosuke Kinugasa's "Gate of Hell" (1953), Kon Ichikawa's "Odd Obsession" (1959), and Yasujirō Ozu's "Floating Weeds" (1959). Her sole role in a non-Japanese film was as Lotus Blossom, the young geisha in "The Teahouse of the August Moon" (1956) opposite Marlon Brando and Glenn Ford, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. Kyō continued to act through her 80s. Her final role was as Matsuura Shino in the NHK television drama series "Haregi Koko Ichiban" in 2000. In  2017, she was presented with an award of merit at the 40th Japanese Academy Awards. After retiring from film, she moved back to Osaka, where she resided until her death. Personal life. Kyō never married, although her romantic relationship with Daiei Film's president Masaichi Nagata was well-publicized in Japan. Kyō died from heart failure on May 12, 2019. She was 95.