Hama Mie

Contracted by Toho at age 16 immediately after graduating high school.

Specialized in playing female leads in comedies during the 60s, including the Crazy Cats series and, to some extent, King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962).

Achieved international fame for playing Bond girl Kissy Suzuki in You Only Live Twice (1967). She was selected from a large pool of Japanese talent to appear in the film, along with Wakabayashi Akiko and Tamba Tetsurô. Hama was originally cast as the spy Aki, while Wakabayashi played Suzuki. Hama struggled to learn her lines in English and director Lewis Gilbert planned to drop her. A grief stricken Hama learned of this and became suicidal, at which point Gilbert relented and instead had her switch roles with Wakabayashi, since Wakabayashi could learn the lines quicker and Suzuki had much less dialogue than Aki.

Well known to genre fans for playing Madame Piranha in King Kong Escapes (1967), a film which incidentally also possessed some Bond-like qualities.

Left Toho in the 70s and moved to television and radio. Became known as the face of Lion Laundry detergent through their TV ads.

Retired from acting in the 90s and devoted her time mainly to environmental causes.