Chieko Higashiyama

September 30, 1890 – May 8, 1980

Chiba, Japan

Chieko Higashiyama (September 30, 1890 – May 8, 1980) was a Japanese actress. Graduating from the girls' school at Gakushuin, she married a businessman in 1909 and spent eight years in Moscow. In 1925, at the age of 35, she decided to become an actress. She trained at the Tsukiji Shōgekijō, a pioneering theater then-famous for modern Japanese plays and translated performances of Western playwrights. Higashiyama appeared in many stage productions, most famously as Madame Ranevskaya in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard." She also appeared in films, including Tokyo Story, which was voted the best film of all time in the 2012 Sight and Sound directors' poll.