YT
Yoko Tani
Actor
Born August 2, 1928Died April 19, 1999 (70 years)
Yoko Tani (谷洋子, Tani Yōko, 2 August 1928 – 19 April 1999) was a French-born Japanese actress and nightclub entertainer.
Tani was born in Paris. Her birth name was Itani Yōko (猪谷洋子). She has occasionally been described as 'Eurasian', 'half French', 'half Japanese' and even, in one source, 'Italian Japanese', all of which are incorrect.
French records (1958) show that her father and mother—both Japanese—were attached to the Japanese embassy in Paris, with Tani herself conceived en route during a shipboard passage from Japan to Europe in 1927 and subsequently born in Paris the following year, hence given the name Yōko (洋子), one reading of which can mean "ocean-child.". Tani would later play a diplomat's daughter in Piccadilly Third Stop.
According to Japanese sources, the family returned to Japan in 1930, when Yoko would still have been a toddler, and she did not return to France until 1950 when her schooling was completed. Given that there were severe restrictions on Japanese travelling outside Japan directly after World War II, this would have been an unusual event; however, it is known that Itani had attended an elite girls' school in Tokyo (Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School, currently Ochanomizu University Senior High School), and then graduated from Tsuda University. She subsequently secured a Catholic scholarship to study aesthetics at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) under Étienne Souriau.
Once back in Paris, Tani found little interest in attending university (although by her own account she persevered for two years despite understanding hardly anything that was being said). Instead, she developed a more compelling attraction to the cabaret, the nightclub, and the variety music-hall, where, setting herself up as an exotic oriental beauty, she quickly established a reputation for her provocative "geisha" dances, which generally ended with her slipping out of her kimono. It was here she was spotted by Marcel Carné, who took her into his circle of director and actor-friends, including Roland Lesaffre, whom she was later to marry. As a result, she began to get bit parts in films—starting as (perhaps predictably) a Japanese dancer, in Gréville's Le port du désir (1953–1954, released 1955)—and on the stage, with a role as Lotus Bleu in la Petite Maison de Thé (French adaptation of The Teahouse of the August Moon) at the Théâtre Montparnasse, 1954–1955 season. ...
Source: Article "Yoko Tani" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Tani was born in Paris. Her birth name was Itani Yōko (猪谷洋子). She has occasionally been described as 'Eurasian', 'half French', 'half Japanese' and even, in one source, 'Italian Japanese', all of which are incorrect.
French records (1958) show that her father and mother—both Japanese—were attached to the Japanese embassy in Paris, with Tani herself conceived en route during a shipboard passage from Japan to Europe in 1927 and subsequently born in Paris the following year, hence given the name Yōko (洋子), one reading of which can mean "ocean-child.". Tani would later play a diplomat's daughter in Piccadilly Third Stop.
According to Japanese sources, the family returned to Japan in 1930, when Yoko would still have been a toddler, and she did not return to France until 1950 when her schooling was completed. Given that there were severe restrictions on Japanese travelling outside Japan directly after World War II, this would have been an unusual event; however, it is known that Itani had attended an elite girls' school in Tokyo (Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School, currently Ochanomizu University Senior High School), and then graduated from Tsuda University. She subsequently secured a Catholic scholarship to study aesthetics at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) under Étienne Souriau.
Once back in Paris, Tani found little interest in attending university (although by her own account she persevered for two years despite understanding hardly anything that was being said). Instead, she developed a more compelling attraction to the cabaret, the nightclub, and the variety music-hall, where, setting herself up as an exotic oriental beauty, she quickly established a reputation for her provocative "geisha" dances, which generally ended with her slipping out of her kimono. It was here she was spotted by Marcel Carné, who took her into his circle of director and actor-friends, including Roland Lesaffre, whom she was later to marry. As a result, she began to get bit parts in films—starting as (perhaps predictably) a Japanese dancer, in Gréville's Le port du désir (1953–1954, released 1955)—and on the stage, with a role as Lotus Bleu in la Petite Maison de Thé (French adaptation of The Teahouse of the August Moon) at the Théâtre Montparnasse, 1954–1955 season. ...
Source: Article "Yoko Tani" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Known For
Filmography
| 1986 | Softly from Paris (TV Series) · as Dame Lune |
| 1971 | Shirley's World (TV Series) |
| 1968 | Koroshi · as Ako Nakamura / Miho |
| 1967 | Man in a Suitcase (TV Series) |
| 1967 | To Chase a Million · as Taiko |
| 1966 | The Spy Who Loved Flowers · as Mei Lang |
| 1966 | Suicide Mission to Singapore · as Annie Wong |
| 1966 | Invasion · as Leader Of The Lystrians |
| 1965 | Desperate Mission · as Su Ling |
| 1965 | OSS 77: Operazione fior di loto · as Lady Of Formosa |
| 1964 | Love Factory · as Yoko |
| 1964 | The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse · as Mercedes |
| 1964 | Last Plane to Baalbeck · as Asia |
| 1963 | Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? · as Isami Hiroti |
| 1963 | The Partner · as Lin Siyan |
| 1962 | Marco Polo · as Princess Amurroy |
| 1962 | My Geisha · as Kazumi Ito |
| 1961 | Tartar Invasion · as Princess Ila |
| 1961 | Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World · as Princess Lei-Ling |
| 1961 | Ben Casey (TV Series) |
| 1960 | Piccadilly Third Stop · as Fina (seraphina) Yokami |
| 1960 | The Savage Innocents · as Asiak |
| 1960 | First Spaceship on Venus · as Sumiko Ogimura, Japanische Ärztin |
| 1959 | The Edgar Wallace Mysteries (TV Series) · as Lin Siyan |
| 1958 | The Wind Cannot Read · as Sabbi |
| 1958 | The Quiet American · as Rendezvous Hostess |
| 1957 | The Ostrich Has Two Eggs · as Yoko |
| 1956 | Mannequins of Paris · as Lotus |
| 1956 | Armchair Theatre (TV Series) · as Michiko |
| 1956 | |
| 1955 | |
| 1955 | Verrat an Deutschland · as Hanako |
| 1955 | House on the Waterfront · as Une Entraîneuse |
| 1955 | The Babes Make the Law · as La Fleuriste Du "lotus" |
| 1955 | Interdit de séjour · as Une Entraîneuse |
| 1954 | Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves · as Cast |
| 1954 | Les clandestines · as The Chinese |
| 1954 |