Machiko Kyo

Brought to films in 1949 on the strength of her beauty and dancing skills, Machiko Kyo unexpectedly proved to be an actress of unusual power and intensity. Only 18 years old when she burst onto the international film scene as the humiliated wife in Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (1953), she followed this triumph with such roles as the ghostly Lady Wakara in Kurosawa's Ugetsu (1954) and the much-desired Lady Kesa in Teinosuke Kinusaga's Gate of Hell (1954). In 1955, she essayed the title role in Princess Yang Kwei Fei, one of her several collaborations with director Kenji Mizoguchi. Her English-language film debut came in 1956, when she was cast opposite Marlon Brando and Glenn Ford in the Okinawa-based Teahouse of the August Moon. Retiring from films in 1976, Machiko Kyo made one last screen appearance in 1985's Kesho. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide