Yoko Shimada

Known for ActingBorn 1953-05-17Died 2022-07-25Kumamoto, Japan

Kumamoto City-born Shimada Yoko is best known in the west as Mariko from the 1980 mini-series Shogun. The lady-in-waiting role created an interest in Japan and its culture overseas and introduced Japanese history to foreign audiences. She won the Golden Globe For Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama category and was nominated for a Prime-time Emmy Award for her work on the serial in 1981. Shimada, who spoke some English for the serial, had been acting for years prior to Shogun however. She began learning ballet since age three and wanted to become a ballerina until her high high school days. Her family had moved to Tokyo when she was eight. She obtained an agent and began acting while in junior high school. The TV serial Zoku Hyouten made her famous beginning 1970. She released a nude photo book, called Kir Royal, in 1992. She was 39 and the photo book became a bestseller shifting half a million copies. At 57 she starred in an 'AV' pornography video called Mikkai in 2011. This was a tribute to her body even at that age. Shimada has a reservation for a space burial.Read more

Movies & web series

Mikkai

My Champion

Truckster Goes to Hokkaido

Dead Angle

Brothers Serving Time

Shōgun

River Without a Bridge

Kanon

The Castle of Sand

Shogun

The Inugami Family

The Sino-Dutch War 1661

Crying Freeman

The Man Who Assassinated Ryoma

Go Go Kamen Rider

The Hunted

The Deep Red

Dog of Fortune

Labyrinth Romanesque

Undiscovered Tomb

I Am a Cat

Dear Heart

God in Jail

The Faithless Love

I Want to Meet Yoko Shimada

Black Corridor

The Making of Shōgun

Sister Yakuza, Bodhisattva Ryuko

Gotoshi Co. Ltd. Special Police Department Crime Prevention Division No. 5104 Case

Ring! Ring! Ring! The Champion Belt of Tears

Sunflower on the Hill

Dohten

Slow Down

Kazu no Fūkei

Minamoto Yoshitsune

Sea of Whitetail

津軽・青森ロマンチック殺人街道

氷点

Tuesday Suspense Theater

Lupin the Thief: Enigma of the 813

Ōgon no Hibi

Fushoku no kōzō

Visitor After Dark

Kyukei no Koya

Nagare no Fu Part I: Disturbance, Part II: Dawn

First Love

Bridge