Miiko Taka
American actress (1925–2023)
Miiko Shikata (Japanese: 志方以子, Hepburn: Shitaka Miiko) (July 24, 1925 – January 4, 2023), known professionally as Miiko Taka (高美以子, Taka Miiko), was an American actress. She was known for her film and television roles from the late 1950s until the early 1980s. Her best known role was as an elegant Japanese dancer starring with Marlon Brando in the romantic drama Sayonara (1957).
Early years
Taka was born on July 24, 1925 in Seattle, but raised in Los Angeles as a Nisei; her parents had immigrated from Japan. In 1942, following the signing of Executive Order 9066, she was interned with her family at the Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona.
Career
After Audrey Hepburn, director Joshua Logan's first choice for the role of Hana-ogi, turned him down, he looked to cast an unknown actress. Taka, who at the time was working as a clerk at a travel agency in Los Angeles, was discovered by a talent scout at a local Nisei festival and brought to Warner Bros. for a screen test, and subsequently offered the part. Although she had had no previous acting experience, Variety gave her a positive review for the role, and Warner Bros. gave her a term contract after completing Sayonara.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Miiko Taka” is american actress (1925–2023). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Miiko, Taka and American, not as a finished interpretation.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q516073. VIAF identifies the subject as 305232926. The Library of Congress control number is no2003014327. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 2023, 1957 and 1942.
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This entry incorporates text from “Miiko Taka” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.