Mie Hama (浜美枝)

Note from the Doc: this is the next in the series of excellent guest posts I’ve received this month. More to come!

Originally a young bus conductor, until friends sent in her picture and details to a talent spotting contest. She was then signed by Toho Co., and the rest was history for Mie Hama.

Reluctant to be an actress, Mie Hama was inspired by Italian acting legend Marcello Mastroianni to take acting seriously, after meeting him on a trip to Rome in 1960. She starred in a Japanese James Bond spoof called Ironfinger in 1965. One of her Japanese movies was re-released in America, dubbed into a comedy with Woody Allen’s name added, as What’s Up Tiger Lily? This was to cash in on her iconic Bond role as Kissy Suzuki in You Only Live Twice. Coinciding with the movie’s release, she and fellow Bond girl Akiko Wakabayashi were both featured in the June 1967 issue of US Playboy magazine. The article was written by Roald Dahl.

Mie Hama returned to her Japanese career, mostly quitting acting by the early 1970s. However, she returned for several TV and movie projects, until the start of the 1990s. She then pursued her lifelong interests in environmental and government projects. In the 1980s and 1990s Mie Hama had a long running NHK radio show on such matters. In 2001 she and her daughter Rena entertained James Bond continuation author Raymond Benson. Benson and other guests enjoyed Japanese cuisine with a hint of Italian, at Hama’s home in Odawara. Today, Mie Hama gives speaking engagements on her various causes, does product endorsements and is still very well known in Japan. She also has her own blog.

Stats:
Born: November 20 1943 in Tokyo, Japan
Height: 1.64m
Vital stats (1967): 35-23-35