Miiko Taka

Miiko Taka (高美以子, Taka Miiko) (born Miiko Shikata^[1] July 24, 1925 – January 4, 2023) was an American actress, popular for her film and television roles from the late 1950s until the early 1980s. Her best known role was as an elegant Japanese dancer starring with Marlon Brando in the drama Sayonara. She also acted in several other films and TV shows with fellow performers such as Miyoshi Umeki, James Garner, Bob Hope, Cary Grant, and Toshirō Mifune.^[2]

Miiko Taka
Taka in a publicity photo for Cry for Happy (1961)
Born	Miiko Shikata (1925-07-24)July 24, 1925 Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Died	January 4, 2023(2023-01-04) (aged 97) Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Resting place	Rose Hills Memorial Park
Other names	Betty Ishimoto
Years active	1957–1982
Spouses	Dale Ishimoto ​ ​ (m. 1944; div. 1958)​ Lennie Blondheim ​ ​ (m. 1963; died 2002)​ Reginald Hsu ​ (m. 2003)​
Children	2
Signature (Japanese)
Signature

Early years

Taka was born on July 24, 1925 in Seattle, but raised in Los Angeles^[3] as a Nisei;^[4] her parents had immigrated from Japan. In 1942, following the signing of Executive Order 9066, she was interned with her family at the Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona.^[5]

Career

After Audrey Hepburn, director Joshua Logan's first choice for the role of Hana-ogi, turned him down, he looked to cast an unknown actress.^[4] Taka, who at the time was working as a clerk at a travel agency in Los Angeles, was discovered by a talent scout at a local Nisei festival.^[3] Although she had no previous acting experience,^[4] Variety gave her a positive review in their review of the film.^[6] Warner Bros. gave her a term contract as a result of her performance in Sayonara.^[7]

After Sayonara, she worked in films with James Garner, Bob Hope, Cary Grant, Glenn Ford and Toshirō Mifune (alongside whom she also worked in the 1980 television miniseries Shõgun). She also served as an interpreter for Mifune and Akira Kurosawa when they visited Hollywood.^[8][9]

Personal life

Taka married Japanese-American actor Dale Ishimoto in Baltimore, Maryland in 1944,^[10] and they had one son, Greg Shikata, who works in the film industry, and one daughter. They divorced in 1958.^[11]

Taka married Los Angeles television news director Lennie Blondheim in 1963.^[12] She resided in Las Vegas, Nevada.^[13] Following Blondheim's death in 2002, she married Reginald Hsu in 2003.^[14]

Taka died on January 4, 2023, at the age of 97.^[2][15][16] She is interred at Rose Hills Memorial Park.^[17]

Motion pictures

Miiko Taka in 1958

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1957	Sayonara	Hana-ogi	screen debut, co-star with Marlon Brando
1958	Panda and the Magic Serpent	Fish Spirit	voice: English version
1960	Hell to Eternity	Ester
1961	Cry for Happy	Chiyoko
1961	Operation Bottleneck	Ari
1963	A Global Affair	Fumiko
1965	The Art of Love	Chou Chou
1966	Walk, Don't Run	Aiko Kurawa
1968	The Power	Mrs. Van Zandt
1973	Lost Horizon	Nurse
1975	Paper Tiger	Madame Kagoyama
1976	Midway		TV version only, uncredited
1978	The Big Fix	Saleswoman
1982	The Challenge	Yoshida's wife

^{[18] [19] [20] [13]}

See also

• History of the Japanese in Los Angeles