Yūko Tanaka

is a Japanese actress from Osaka Prefecture, Japan. She has won several acting awards during a long career working in both film and television, after she graduated from Meiji University.

Life and career

Early career At the beginning of her career in 1979, Tanaka had a leading role in the NHK TV drama series and she also voiced the role of Judy in the Fuji Television anime movie , based on the novel by Jean Webster, which was broadcast in October 1979. Tanaka appeared in her first theatrical film in 1981, the historical drama Eijanaika and later that year she starred in Edo Porn, a fictional biography of the artist Hokusai. Tanaka received a number of accolades for her work in these two films including Best Supporting Actress and one of the Best Newcomer of the Year awards from the Japan Academy. She also won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as the Hochi Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. Tanaka returned to television drama in late 1981 with the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) series about three office ladies (OL) reaching their 25th birthdays. The series, which also starred Masako Mori and Yūko Kotegawa, ran from September to December 1981.

In May 1982, Tanaka starred in the film directed by Yōichi Higashi, Later that year, Tanaka played "Keiko", the love interest of Torajirō (Tora-san), in the comedy, Tora-san, the Expert, part of a long running series of films. For her part in the film she won both the Blue Ribbon Award and the Kinema Junpo award for Best Actress.

Oshin and afterwards As part of the celebration of their 30th anniversary in 1983, the Japanese TV network NHK inaugurated a new NHK Serial TV Novel titled . The serial told the story of a peasant girl, Oshin, born in 1900, who endures poverty and mistreatment but in later life finds success and happiness. Oshin as a young girl was played by Ayako Kobayashi but Tanaka took over the role as the adult Oshin. The series ran in almost 300 fifteen-minute episodes broadcast from April 1983 to March 1984 and its peak rating (62.9%) made it "the most popular drama in Japanese TV history". The series was also popular outside Japan and Tanaka became a "household name" in China in the 1980s.

After Oshin, Tanaka returned to feature films with starring roles in the comedy Capone Cries a Lot which was distributed by Shochiku in February 1985, and in the August 1985 drama opposite Ken Takakura.

Over the next ten years, Tanaka mostly worked in television, appearing in a dozen TV movies During this period, Tanaka also appeared in two films, one of them the July 1987 sentimental drama about a teacher. In May 1988, Tanaka starred as Kino (Catherine in the novel) in Wuthering Heights, director Yoshishige Yoshida's film adaptation of the classic Emily Brontë novel set in medieval Japan.

Later career When director Yōji Yamada reworked a script from his popular Otoko wa Tsurai yo film series after the death of "Tora-san" star Kiyoshi Atsumi as in December 1996, Tanaka, who had earlier worked with Yamada in Tora-san, the Expert, was chosen to play the true love of a manager of a failing movie theater (Toshiyuki Nishida). In July 1997, Tanaka provided the voice of Lady Eboshi in the anime fantasy Princess Mononoke

Tanaka continued performing in both film and television roles throughout the 2000s The film was nominated for 13 awards by the Japan Academy including a Best Actress nomination for Tanaka. In the January 2005 film , Tanaka took on the role of real life ceramic artist Kiyoko Koyama. When her son was diagnosed with leukemia, Kiyoko worked to form a patients' group for bone marrow transplants, and she was instrumental in the formation of the Japan Marrow Donor Program (JMDP). The film was directed by Banmei Takahashi who is better known for his early work in pink film. The movie brought Tanaka both the Hochi Film Award and the Kinema Junpo Award for Best Actress.

Tanaka's next film role was a fifty-year-old single woman who meets an old flame while delivering milk in the July 2005 romantic drama . She won a Best Actress Award for her roles in this film and Hibi at the 2006 Japanese Professional Movie Awards. Tanaka voiced the character of the wizard Cob in the July 2006 anime movie Tales from Earthsea which was also released in an English language version in the United States in August 2010.

Tanaka returned to television drama starring as the Empress Dowager Cixi in the NHK historical drama . The Sino-Japanese production ran in 28 episodes in Japan from January to July 2010 and in China from March 2010, with both versions receiving excellent ratings. The next year she took the part of Keisuke Kinoshita's mother in the June 2013 Dawn of a Filmmaker: The Keisuke Kinoshita Story, a drama based on the life of the famous Japanese film director, and she also played a leading role in Shinji Aoyama's in September 2013.

Filmography

Films

TV dramas

TV anime Year Title Role Notes 1979Daddy-Long-LegsJudyTelevision film

Honours Medal with Purple Ribbon (2010) Kinuyo Tanaka Award (2021)