Yoshiko Kuga has spent most of a working life as an actress with a career measured in decades rather than seasons. Steady employment, rather than one breakout, gives the career its shape. Ask a viewer to place Yoshiko Kuga and the answer usually comes back 'Good Morning'. 'Drunken Angel' is the other credit most often cited. More of the credits fall under drama than under anything else.
Yoshiko Kuga
Actress
93 years (Jan 21, 1931 – Jun 9, 2024)Ushigome, Japon
Yoshiko Kuga has spent most of a working life as an actress with a career measured in decades rather than seasons. Steady employment, rather than one breakout, gives the career its shape. Ask a viewer to place Yoshiko Kuga and the answer usually comes back 'Good Morning'. 'Drunken Angel' is the other credit most often cited. More of the credits fall under drama than under anything else.
Yoshiko Kuga (久我 美子, Kuga Yoshiko, 21 January 1931 – 9 June 2024) was a Japanese actress. Kuga was born in Tokyo, Japan. In 1946, while still attending Gakushuin Junior High School, she became an actress for Toho studios. In 1947, she made her debut as one of the lead actresses in the omnibus movie Four Love Stories (四つの恋の物語, Yottsu no Koi no Monogatari). In the 1950s, she started working independently and starred in many productions of the Shochiku studios under the direction of Keisuke Kinoshita. Other important directors include Kenji Mizoguchi (The Woman in the Rumor), Yasujirō Ozu (Equinox Flower), and Tadashi Imai (An Inlet of Muddy Water). Since the 1970s, she appeared mainly on television and on stage.
Kuga was married to actor Akihiko Hirata from 1961 until his death in 1984. She died from aspiration pneumonia on 9 June 2024, at the age of 93.