Miyoshi Umeki

Miyoshi Umeki was a singer and actress who held both Japanese and American citizenship. She made history as the first woman born in East Asia to win an acting Oscar, taking home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1957 film *Sayonara*. Over her career, she earned three Golden Globe nominations and a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for her work in Rodgers and Hammerstein's *Flower Drum Song*.

Umeki was born in Otaru, Hokkaido, the youngest of nine children. Her father owned an iron factory. After World War II, she began singing in Japanese nightclubs under the name Nancy Umeki. She drew early inspiration from traditional kabuki theater and American pop music. On *The Merv Griffin Show*, she once performed an impression of singer Billy Eckstine, one of her American favorites.

She is best remembered for playing Katsumi in *Sayonara*, Mei Li in both the Broadway musical and 1961 film *Flower Drum Song*, and Mrs. Livingston on the television series *The Courtship of Eddie's Father*. Umeki was a *shin Issei*, a Japanese immigrant who arrived after 1945.

From 1950 to 1954, she recorded for RCA Victor Japan and appeared in the film *Seishun Jazu Musume*. She mostly sang American jazz standards, performing them in Japanese, English, or a mix of both. Her Japanese recordings included songs such as "It Isn't Fair," "Sentimental Me," "My Foolish Heart," "With a Song in My Heart," "Again," "Vaya con Dios," "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?," and "I'll Walk Alone." She moved to the United States in 1955. After becoming a regular on *Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts*, she signed with Mercury Records and released several singles and two albums. Her appearances on Godfrey's show caught the attention of director Joshua Logan, who cast her in *Sayonara*, leading to her Oscar win. She was the first Asian actor to win an Academy Award.

In 1958, she performed "How Deep Is the Ocean" twice on *The Gisele MacKenzie Show*. That same year, she was nominated for a Tony for her Broadway debut in *Flower Drum Song*, directed by Gene Kelly and running for two years. *Time* magazine wrote that "the warmth of her art works a kind of tranquil magic." She appeared in the 1961 film adaptation of the musical and earned a Golden Globe nomination for it. After many guest spots on variety shows, she appeared in only three more films through 1962: *Cry for Happy* (1961), *The Horizontal Lieutenant* (1962), and *A Girl Named Tamiko* (1963). From 1969 to 1972, she played housekeeper Mrs. Livingston on *The Courtship of Eddie's Father*, earning another Golden Globe nomination. She retired from acting after the series ended.

Umeki married television director Frederick Winfield "Wynn" Opie in 1958; they divorced in 1967 and had one son, Michael H. Opie, born in 1964. She married Randall Firevod Hood in 1968, who adopted her son, renaming him Michael Randall Hood (February 11, 1964 – August 27, 2018). The couple ran a Los Angeles business renting editing equipment to film studios and university film programs. Randall Hood died in 1976. Her son became a police sergeant.

According to her son, Umeki lived in Sherman Oaks, California, for many years before moving to Licking, Missouri, to be near him and his family, including three grandchildren. Known as Miyoshi Hood, she died there on August 28, 2007, at age 78, from cancer.