is a Japanese

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

best known for her role as Okichi opposite

John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Gol ...

in ''

The Barbarian and the Geisha ''The Barbarian and the Geisha'' (working titles ''The Townsend Harris Story'' and ''The Barbarian'') is a 1958 American adventure drama film directed by John Huston and starring John Wayne. The film was shot primarily on location in Japan. Town ...

'' in 1958. Ando was born in

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

, in the Japanese puppet state of

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

(today Northeast

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

), to a Japanese

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

. When the Communists took over the family fled back to Japan. After her father died in 1953, she went to work as a singer and then as a

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

dancer. When director

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...

was looking for an actress for the part of Okichi, a friend of Ando's who worked in the

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

office of

20th Century-Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

recommended Ando to Huston. Once Huston saw her, after auditioning 33 other actresses, he and producer

Eugene Frenke Eugene Frenke (1 January 1895- 10 March 1984) was a Ukrainian-born film producer, director and writer. He twice collaborated with the director John Huston on the films '' Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison'' and ''The Barbarian and the Geisha''. He was ma ...

were done looking, mainly because of her height over the other women. At the time of filming for ''

'' she was .

References

External links

* * Japanese film actresses 1934 births Living people Japanese women singers Burlesque performers Actresses from Harbin Japanese female dancers Japanese people from Manchukuo Japanese expatriates in China {{Japan-film-actor-stub