Akiko Wakabayashi

Akiko Wakabayashi

1939-12-13

Biography

Akiko Wakabayashi (born December 13, 1939 in Ōta, Tokyo) is a Japanese actress, best known in English-speaking countries for her role as Bond girl, Aki in the 1967 James Bond movie You Only Live Twice. Prior to this, she made many movies in her native Japan, especially Toho Studio's monster movies such as Dagora, the Space Monster and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (both of which were also released under various other titles). When production of You Only Live Twice began, Wakabayashi was originally slated to play the role of Kissy Suzuki whilst her co-star Mie Hama played Suki, one of Tiger Tanaka's top agents. When learning English proved to be a major hurdle to Hama, the women switched roles, with Hama now playing the smaller part of Kissy and Wakabayashi playing the larger part of Suki. Wakabayashi, as Aki in the movie You Only Live Twice. At her suggestion, the character of Suki was renamed to Aki. This is probably partly because[citation needed] in 1966, Woody Allen took the Japanese action film International Secret Police: Key of Keys (in which both Mie Hama and Wakabayashi starred), re-edited, re-dubbed, re-plotted, and renamed it What's Up, Tiger Lily?. In the film, Wakabayashi's character was "Suki Yaki" whereas her You Only Live Twice co-star Hama played "Teri Yaki". Wakabayashi made only one more film (and a guest TV appearance) before disappearing from both the big and small screen. In an interview in G-FAN magazine (No. 76), Wakabayashi said she retired from acting due to injuries sustained while making a movie. Description above from the Wikipedia article Akiko Wakabayashi, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Also appears in

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Song for a Bride

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Key of Keys

Key of Keys

6.0

Our Failures

Our Failures

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The Crimson Sky

The Crimson Sky

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Interpol Code 8

Interpol Code 8

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Diamonds of the Andes

Diamonds of the Andes

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The Weed of Crime

The Weed of Crime

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Acchan no bebi gyangu

Acchan no bebi gyangu

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Akiko

Akiko

6.5

Girl from Hong Kong

Girl from Hong Kong

10.0

Pig and Goldfish

Pig and Goldfish

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The Orientals

The Orientals

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The Exotic Locations of ’You Only Live Twice’

The Exotic Locations of ’You Only Live Twice’

6.0