Setsuko Hara

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Setsuko Hara June 17 1920 September 5 2015 was a Japanese actress who appeared in six of Yasujirō Ozus films most notably as Noriko in the Noriko Trilogy Late Spring 1949 Early Summer 1951 and Tokyo Story 1953 Her other films for Ozu were Tokyo Twilight 1957 Late Autumn 1960 and finally The End of Summer in 1961 She was born  Masae Aida in Yokohama Kanagawa prefecture She came to prominence as an actress at an early age in the 1937 GermanJapanese coproduction Die Tochter des Samurai Daughter of the Samurai known in Japan as Atarashiki Tsuchi The New Earth directed by Arnold Fanck and Mansaku Itami She also starred in films by Akira Kurosawa Mikio Naruse and other prominent directors She was called the Eternal Virgin in Japan and is a symbol of the golden era of Japanese cinema of the 1950s although she is mostly unknown in the US She suddenly quit acting in 1963 the same year as Ozus death and had since led a secluded life in Kamakura refusing all interviews and photographs Her last major role was Riku wife of Ōishi Yoshio in the 1962 film Chushingura She was the inspiration for the protagonist of the 2001 movie Millennium Actress Description above from the Wikipedia article Setsuko Hara licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia