Kumeko Urabe

Known for ActingBorn 1902-10-05Died 1989-10-26Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

Kumeko Urabe (Japanese: 浦辺粂子), born Kimura Kume ((木村くめ)), (October 5, 1902 – October 26, 1989) was a Japanese movie actress, one of the first in the country. She worked on stage and in film and television. Urabe was born in a rural part of the Shizuoka Prefecture. She lived in several homes while growing up, as she relocated with her father, a Buddhist priest, among the temples to which he was assigned. Urabe completed her education in Numazu, and left school in 1919 to join a theatre company, touring under various stage names as an actor and dancer. In 1923, Urabe auditioned at the film studio Nikkatsu, and adopted the name Kumeko Urabe, by which she was known for the rest of her life. She appeared in her first film the following year, and continued to act until 1987. She worked with such directors as Kenji Mizoguchi and Mikio Naruse, and performed in over 320 films, including Ikiru, Older Brother, Younger Sister, Portrait of Madame Yuki, She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum, and Street of Shame. She also starred in television dramas, including thirteen episodes of Toshiba Sunday Theatre between 1958 and 1980. In the following decade, she carved a niche as a Grandma idol, until her death in 1989.Read more

Movies & web series

Lovely Days

Flower Cards Chivalry

Twice on a Certain Night

An Heir's Place

Bot-chan

Wedding March

Ginza Cancan Girls

Tora-san's Pure Love

I Sell My Husband

Dupe

Ghost Story of Devil's Fire Swamp

Scarred Yosaburo

The Song Lantern

The Precipice

Sound in the Mist

Seishun no oto

House of Many Pleasures

The Golden Demon

Oka wa hanazakari

Ah, My Hometown

And Yet They Go On

Irresponsible Rascal of Japan

The Makioka Sisters

Ikiru

Yearning

The Secret Ceremony

Season of Tears

Hachiko

Night Scandal

Night Mist Makes Women Cry

Victory and Defeat

When a Woman Loves

Stray Dog

Tomorrow I'll Be a Fire-Tree

A Man Among Men

東京シンデレラ娘

Shi no machi wo nogarete

Two in the Shadow

New Snow

Bridge of Japan

Street of Shame

Moken no himitsu

Twenty-Four Eyes

Tokyo Twilight

Eyes, the Sea and a Ball

Floating Weeds

Goodbye, Hello

Early Spring