Yôko Yamamoto

Yoko Yamamoto was born on March 17, 1942 in the Nakano ward of Tokyo, Japan. After graduating from Kokugakuin High School, she started working for Nomura Shoken (a major stock brokerage firm in Japan), but in 1963, one of her colleagues entered her in Nikkatsu Studio's audition. She was selected and started her career for Nikkatsu Studio and made her screen debut on movie "Hana to Dotou" in 1964. She is perhaps best known in the west in her role as Itoko Koyanagi in the movie Daikyojyu Gappa a.k.a. Monster from a Prehistoric Planet (1967). Yamamoto's career took off when she started to star in TV dramas such as "Shirobanba", "Shichinin no mago", "Shiroi Kage" and "Shiroi Kassouro". The TV program she stars in usually had high ratings, and she was in demand throughout the '70s, '80s, and '90s. In 1980, she started to branch out into stage acting, and has been active to this day.