- Born
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Akiko Wakabayashi was born on August 26, 1941 in Tokyo, Japan. During
her work in movies, she became one of Japan's most popular actresses of
their cinema's "Golden Age", ranking with actresses
Kumi Mizuno and
Mie Hama. One of her first films was
Akiko (1961), which was named after her.
Interestingly, the movie title shares both her real and character
names. Her career took off when she came to Toho Studios, appearing in
a host of sci-fi films, including that of the sexy gangster moll in
Dogora (1964)
and the bewitching alien-possessed princess in
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964).
However, in the Western Cinema, she is probably best-known for her role
as Bond girl "Aki" in the 007 epic,
You Only Live Twice (1967),
appearing alongside actor Sean Connery.
When production of the 007 film began, Wakabayashi was originally
chosen to play Bond girl "Kissy Suzuki" and her co-star,
Mie Hama, is to play Bond girl "Suki". As Hama
had a difficult time mastering the English language, the two actresses
switched roles. In addition, Wakabayashi suggested her character name
be Aki instead of Suki.
In the late 1960s to early 1970s, Japan's movie industry experienced an
economic slump, which resulted in severe budget cuts. During that time,
Wakabayashi made a rather abrupt end to her acting career, and has
never been seen on the big screen since. Whether or not the economic
slump played a factor, Wakabayashi remains one of the most memorable
actresses of Japan, especially to Toho Studios' sci-fi fandom.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Oliver Chu
- SpousesKyoto Soto(March 6, 1965 - present) (5 children)?(February 7, 1959 - April 4, 1960) (divorced, 1 child)
- Along with Mie Hama, Wakabayashi was one of the first Asian "Bond
Girls", when the two of them appeared in 1967's You Only Live Twice (1967). - She was able to speak bits of Italian and German.
- She impressed director Lewis Gilbert, when she learned the English language in just three months for You Only Live Twice (1967). In his 2010 memoir "All my Flashbacks", he wrote: "Akiko was fine. She could not only say the words, she could make sense of them." She became one of the few foreign actresses in the 1960s James Bond films, whose voice wasn't dubbed.
- She and her fellow Japanese co-star Mie Hama didn't speak any English, so the producers from You Only Live Twice (1967) sent them to live separately with English-speaking families in England for three months, where children would talk to them incessantly in English. Akiko picked up the language, but Mie couldn't, so the producers had them switch roles, where Akiko got the dialogue-heavy role of Aki, while Mie's voice would be dubbed by Nikki Van der Zyl.
- Diane Cilento {Connery's then wife} doubled for Mie Hama and Akika Wakabayashi in the swimming sequences as neither could swim,.
- [on her leading man Sean Connery from You Only Live Twice (1967)] James Bond in the movie is a ladies' man, but Sean-san is a warm-hearted, honest man. He has a clear vision as an actor. He can be stubborn from time to time, but he is a real man with a bit of old-fashioned taste.
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