Machiko kyo biography

Date of Birth:
Mar 25, 1924Birth Place:
Osaka, Japan

Japanese actress Machiko Kyo was a powerful and versatile presence in some the most critically acclaimed and successful films from her country in the 1950s, including Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" (1950), "Ugetsu" and "Floating Weeds" (1959). Born Motoko Yano on March 25, 1924, in Osaka, japan, Kyo sought from an early age to become a solo dancer in order to provide financial assistance to her mother, who had raised her, along with her grandmother, after the departure of Kyo's father. In the mid-1930s, she joined the Osaka Shochiku Kagekidan revue, and adopted the stage name Machiko Kyo. In the late 1940s, she was discovered by a scout from Daiei Studios, and brought to the attention of company president Masaichi Nagata, who groomed her for an acting career while also pursuing a romantic relationship with Kyo. Her film career began with a minor role as a witch in the fantasy drama "Hana kurabe tanuki-goten" (1949), but critical praise for her performance in her second film, "Naomi," led to Nagata casting her in Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" (1950). The film, about conflicting accounts of a woman's rape and the murder of her husband by bandit Toshiro Mifune, won the Golden Lion at the

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