Miyoshi Umeki Has Died At 78 After Battle With Cancer

Miyoshi Umeki, the Oscar-winning actress has died of cancer. She was 78 years old. Miyoshi Umeki won the award for her performance as the doomed wife of an American serviceman in Sayonara and later starred in the Broadway musical Flower Drum Song.

Japanese Umeki was the first Asian performer to ever win an Oscar. She died on August 28th at Licking nursing home. The film Sayonara saw her team with Red Buttons in a tragic subplot about a U.S serviceman and local woman who fall in love in post WWII Japan. Faced with losing her husband when he goes back to America, the couple commit suicide.

She later played Mei Li, a mail-order bride bought to San Francisco from China in the 1958 show Flower Drum song. She was nominated for a Tony for best actress in a musical and reprised her role in the 1961 film version.

Other movies Miyoshi starred in were Cry for Happy (1961), The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962) and A Girl Named Tamiko (1962)

Umeki retired from show business in the early 1970’s. She moved to Licking in the 90’s to be closer to her family. Her second husband, Randall F. Hood died in 1976.

Our thoughts go out to her son, Michael Hood and Umeki’s two grandchildren.