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person_profile-Yoko Tani

Yoko Tani Died at age: 70

Actor | Producer

Fullname:

Yoko Tani

Date of Birth:

Aug 02, 1928

Country of birth:

France

Died:

Apr 19, 1999

Biography of

Yoko Tani

    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.

Photos of

Yoko Tani

Photos ( 4 Photos

Filmography of

Yoko Tani

Found 31 Movies in total

Koroshi

Ako Nakamura / Miho ( Actor )

... 1968

... 1967

To Chase A Million

Taiko ( Actor )

... 1967

The Spy Who Loved Flowers

Mei Lang ( Actor )

... 1966

Suicide Mission to Singapore

Annie Wong ( Actor )

... 1966

Desperate Mission

Su Ling ( Actor )

... 1965

Invasion

Leader of the Lystrians ( Actor )

... 1965

OSS 77 - Operation Lotus Flower

Lady of Formosa ( Actor )

... 1965

... 1964

... 1964

Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?

Isami Hiroti ( Actor )

... 1963

Marco Polo

Princess Amurroy ( Actor )

... 1962

My Geisha

Kazumi Ito ( Actor )

... 1962

Ursus and the Tartar Princess

Princess Ila ( Actor )

... 1961

Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World

Princess Lei-ling ( Actor )

... 1961

Piccadilly Third Stop

Fina (Seraphina) Yokami (as Yoko Tani) ( Actor )

... 1960

The Savage Innocents

Asiak ( Actor )

... 1960

First Spaceship on Venus

Sumiko Ogimura MD ( Actor )

... 1960

The Wind Cannot Read

Sabbi ( Actor )

... 1958

The Quiet American

Rendezvous Hostess ( Actor )

... 1958

Fire in the Flesh

Zélie ( Actor )

... 1958

... 1957

Mannequins of Paris

Lotus ( Actor )

... 1956

Women in Prison

Mary, prisoner ( Actor )

... 1956

... 1956

Maid in Paris

Une élève ( Actor )

... 1956

... 1955

House on the Waterfront

Une entraîneuse ( Actor )

... 1955

The Babes Make the Law

La fleuriste du "Lotus" ( Actor )

... 1955

Vice Dolls

The Chinese ( Actor )

... 1954

... 1954