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Miyoshi Umeki 1929 - 2007

Miyoshi Umeki was born on May 8, 1929 in Otaru, Hokkaido Japan, and died at age 78 years old on August 28, 2007 in Licking, Texas County, Missouri United States.

Miyoshi Umeki

Miyoshi Umeki, Nancy Umeki

May 8, 1929

Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan

August 28, 2007

Licking, Texas County, Missouri, 65542, United States

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Miyoshi Umeki Miyoshi Umeki (1929 - 2007)

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Miyoshi Umeki's History: 1929 - 2007

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Introduction

Miyoshi Umeki Born May 8, 1929 in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan Died August 28, 2007 in Licking, Missouri, USA (cancer) Height 5' 1" (1.55 m) Although she projected the typical Japanese female stereotype of humbleness, delicacy and subservience in most of her prime film and stage roles, beguiling, tiny-framed Miyoshi Umeki was nevertheless an assertive scene-stealer. This docile and deceptive-looking talent with the cropped hair and heart-shaped face radiated charm and innocence so effortlessly, she managed to make history at Academy Awards time as the first Asian performer to receive an acting Oscar for her superb work in the tragic post-WWII film drama Sayonara (1957). Miyoshi Umeki was born on May 8, 1929, in Otaru on the large northern island of Hokkaido. The daughter of a prominent Japanese iron factory owner and the youngest of nine children, she developed an early passion for music and learned to play the mandolin, harmonica and piano. She also enjoyed singing American-styled tunes much to the chagrin of her parents. This propensity for Americanized pop songs later paid off. Following WWII she traveled with a U.S. Army G.I. jazz band in Japan as Nancy Umeki and was the first to record American songs, for RCA Victor Japan, in her homeland. She became an extremely popular radio and nightclub artist which triggered a move to the United States in 1955. Again, the diminutive vocalist demonstrated a demure prowess for gaining attention with her one-season regular role (1955-1956) on the musical variety show Arthur Godfrey and His Friends (1949). With that popularity, she was able to sign with Mercury Records and eventually released two albums. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. From this recognition she was immediately cast in the Marlon Brando/Miiko Taka, Sayonara (1957) based on James A. Michener's best-selling romantic tale. She had made a minor movie debut a few years earlier in a Japanese musical. Inspired casting opposite comedian Red Buttons in a tragic, counterpoint romance as a WWII airman and his naive Japanese war bride who fall victim to post-war prejudice led to supporting Academy Awards for both actors. Despite her win, she would not make another film for four years. Following this Oscar-winning endeavor, Umeki conquered Broadway with the 1958 musical Flower Drum Song in which she proved a highlight as a starry-eyed Chinese immigrant / mail-order bride with her captivating rendition of A Hundred Million Miracles, earning a Tony nomination in the process. She scored additional points after recreating her role for the film version of Flower Drum Song (1961). Ms. Umeki made only five American films in all. Her other appearances were support roles in the naval comedy Cry for Happy (1961) in which she and her Sayonara (1957) co-star Miiko Taka were paired with Glenn Ford and Donald O'Connor; the Jim Hutton / Paula Prentiss service comedy The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962); and the Laurence Harvey / France Nuyen racial drama A Girl Named Tamiko (1962). She also tread fairly lightly on TV with random 60s appearances on The Donna Reed Show (1958), Dr. Kildare (1961), Rawhide (1959) and Mister Ed (1958), among others. Duing the 1950s and 1960s, Umeki was an occasional guest on variety shows for such TV titans as Perry Como, Dinah Shore, Merv Griffin, Andy Williams and Ed Sullivan. Arguably her biggest claim to fame was as Mrs. Livingston, the housekeeper and quiet pillar of strength to a widower and his young son, in the heart-tugging TV comedy The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969). Following this renewed attention, Umeki went into a complete self-imposed retirement. She lived a predictably sedate family life for better than three decades. Her 1958 marriage to TV producer/director Win Opie ended in divorce after 9 years. She subsequently married TV director Randall Hood in 1968 and the couple ran a business renting editing equipment to film studios and university film programs until his sudden death in Los Angeles in 1976. A longtime resident of North Hollywood, she eventually moved to Missouri with advancing age to be nearer to her son and his family. She died of cancer at age 78 on August 28, 2007, at the Licking Park Manor nursing home in Licking, Missouri. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / [contact link] Spouse (2) Randall Hood (26 October 1968 - 16 August 1976) ( his death) ( 1 child) Win Opie (23 July 1958 - 1967) ( divorced) Trivia (14) The first Asian actor to win an Academy Award, for best supporting actress in Sayonara (1957). Was already famous as Nancy Umeki in Japan with several hit songs and film appearances to her credit before coming to the U.S. in 1955. Was nominated for the 1959 Tony Award as best actress in a musical for Flower Drum Song, a role she recreated in the film version, Flower Drum Song (1961). Appeared on a 1958 cover of Time magazine along with actress Pat Suzuki while appearing on Broadway in Flower Drum Song . Gave birth to her only child at age 34, a son Michael H. Opie - later renamed Michael Randall Hood - on February 11, 1964. Child's father is her 1st husband, Win Opie. After her retirement from the entertainment industry, she ran an editing machine business in Los Angeles for several years. She recorded for Mercury Records, 1955-1959. Released five 45rpm singles and two LPs as a lead vocalist. One more LP was a recompiled budget release. There's also a various artists compilation LP which contains one track by her. Before that, she recorded for RCA Japan as Nancy Umeki. One of nine actors of Asian descent nominated for an Academy Award in an acting category. The others are Sessue Hayakawa nominated for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Mako nominated for The Sand Pebbles (1966), Ben Kingsley who won Best Actor for Gandhi (1982), Haing S. Ngor who won Best Supporting Actor for The Killing Fields (1984), Pat Morita nominated for The Karate Kid (1984), Ken Watanabe nominated for The Last Samurai (2003) Shohreh Aghdashloo nominated for House of Sand and Fog (2003) and Rinko Kikuchi nominated for Babel (2006). As of 2011, she is the only person of East Asian descent to win an Academy Award for acting. Retired in a small town in Missouri near her son and family. [November 2004] Retired and lived in Hawaii. [2003] Best known for her role as Mrs. Livingston on The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969). Good friend of Bill Bixby. Was the 46th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Sayonara (1957) at The 30th Annual Academy Awards (1958) on March 26, 1958.
05/8

1929

Birthday

May 8, 1929

Birthdate

Otaru, Hokkaido Japan

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

Female. Her parents were Japanese.
Early Life & Education

Hokkaido. Japan.
Professional Career

Although she projected the typical Japanese female stereotype of humbleness, delicacy and subservience in most of her prime film and stage roles, beguiling, tiny-framed Miyoshi Umeki was nevertheless an assertive scene-stealer. This docile and deceptive-looking talent with the cropped hair and heart-shaped face radiated charm and innocence so effortlessly, she managed to make history at Academy Awards time as the first Asian performer to receive an acting Oscar for her superb work in the tragic post-WWII film drama Sayonara (1957). Miyoshi Umeki was born on May 8, 1929, in Otaru on the large northern island of Hokkaido. The daughter of a prominent Japanese iron factory owner and the youngest of nine children, she developed an early passion for music and learned to play the mandolin, harmonica and piano. She also enjoyed singing American-styled tunes much to the chagrin of her parents. This propensity for Americanized pop songs later paid off. Following WWII she traveled with a U.S. Army G.I. jazz band in Japan as Nancy Umeki and was the first to record American songs, for RCA Victor Japan, in her homeland. She became an extremely popular radio and nightclub artist which triggered a move to the United States in 1955. Again, the diminutive vocalist demonstrated a demure prowess for gaining attention with her one-season regular role (1955-1956) on the musical variety show Arthur Godfrey and His Friends (1949). With that popularity, she was able to sign with Mercury Records and eventually released two albums. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. From this recognition she was immediately cast in the Marlon Brando/Miiko Taka, Sayonara (1957) based on James A. Michener's best-selling romantic tale. She had made a minor movie debut a few years earlier in a Japanese musical. Inspired casting opposite comedian Red Buttons in a tragic, counterpoint romance as a WWII airman and his naive Japanese war bride who fall victim to post-war prejudice led to supporting Academy Awards for both actors. Despite her win, she would not make another film for four years. Following this Oscar-winning endeavor, Umeki conquered Broadway with the 1958 musical Flower Drum Song in which she proved a highlight as a starry-eyed Chinese immigrant / mail-order bride with her captivating rendition of A Hundred Million Miracles, earning a Tony nomination in the process. She scored additional points after recreating her role for the film version of Flower Drum Song (1961).
Personal Life & Family

Singing. Recordings.
08/28

2007

Death

August 28, 2007

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Licking, Texas County, Missouri 65542, United States
Death location

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Obituary

Miyoshi Umeki - Gifted actor who became the first Asian to win an Oscar Ronald Bergan - Published on Mon 17 Sep 2007 18.58 EDT Umeki's Academy award was for best supporting actress in the 1957 movie Sayonara, as a Japanese woman who marries an American soldier, played by Red Buttons, who won the best supporting actor category. The US military does everything it can to break up the marriage, finally forcing the couple to commit suicide rather than face being separated by his transfer. The 5ft 1in tall Umeki gave such a tender performance that she overcame the submissive nature of the role. Likewise, her personality, wit and charming singing overrode much of the patronising attitude of the Rogers and Hammerstein Broadway musical Flower Drum Song (1958), in which she appeared on both stage and screen. According to Time magazine, which featured Umeki and her co-star Pat Suzuki on the cover: "When Miyoshi Umeki glides on stage to star in her first Broadway show, her first four words capture the house. The warmth of her art works a kind of tranquil magic, and the whole theatre relaxes." Born in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, Umeki was the youngest of nine children, whose father owned a successful iron factory. She was first exposed to US popular music as a teenager by a group of GIs who befriended her family shortly after VJ day in August 1945. While listening to Armed Forces Radio, she started to sing by imitating Dinah Shore, Peggy Lee and Doris Day, learning the words of the songs phonetically. She soon found her own voice, singing on Japanese radio and television, and recording for RCA Japan under the name of Nancy Umeki. Two years after appearing in one Japanese film, a musical called Seishun Jazu Musume (Youthful Jazz Daughter, 1953), she went to the US to play the nightclub circuit. Her appearance on the Arthur Godfrey and Friends TV show on television in 1955 was noticed by a Warner Bros casting agent, who got her to make a screen test for Joshua Logan, the director of Sayonara. Like many Oscar winners before and after her, Umeki was almost lost for words at the awards ceremony. She could only say: "I wish somebody would help me right now. I didn't expect it and have nothing in my mind. Except I want to thank you and you and you and all American people." Umeki and a few other Japanese actors had begun to profit from America's rapprochement with its erstwhile enemy, and such Japanese films as Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950) were beginning to be more widely shown, although there was still a long way to go to overcome stereotyping. Flower Drum Song, directed by Gene Kelly and featuring a mostly Asian cast, had the Japanese Umeki playing an illegal Chinese immigrant just arrived in San Francisco for an arranged marriage - Broadway and Hollywood seldom bothered to make ethnic distinctions. Her two solo numbers, A Hundred Million Miracles and I'm Going To Like It Here, were sweetly sung both on stage and in the 1961 film version, but the character was not much of an advance from the days of Anna May Wong. Umeki's other Hollywood movies, all feeble attempts to dispute that "never the twain shall meet", were Cry For Happy (1961), in which she played one of four geisha girls - all smiles and gestures - entertaining four American naval photographers on leave in Tokyo; The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962) - smiling and inscrutable while watching Jim Hutton's antics as an American serviceman on a Pacific island; and A Girl Named Tamiko (1962), in which she was living with British antique dealer Michael Wilding. Umeki found rather more rewarding work on television, especially in 66 episodes, between 1969 and 1972, of The Courtship of Eddie's Father. The show centered around Bill Bixby as a youngish widower whose freckled-faced, six-year-old son, Eddie (Brandon Cruz), tries to manipulate his father into getting a new wife. Umeki played the sage Japanese housekeeper, Mrs Livingston, always called by her last name, while she calls her boss "Mr Eddie's father". After the show ended its run, Umeki retired from show business and moved to a small town in the Missouri Ozarks. She is survived by the son of her second marriage, to the sometime producer and director Randall Hood. · Miyoshi Umeki, actor, born May 8 1929; died August 28 2007

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Miyoshi Umeki lived 2 years shorter than the average family member when died at the age of 78.

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