'Shirley' Yamaguchi | Singer, actress, 94

Yoshiko "Shirley" Yamaguchi, 94, a singer, actress, and politician whose life was a series of incarnations, died Sept. 7 in Tokyo, her family said. They did not cite a specific cause.

Born to Japanese parents in Manchuria, Ms. Yamaguchi, who was bilingual, appeared acted in romantic melodramas produced by the Japanese-funded Manchuria Cinema Association. During World War II, she masqueraded for the company as a Chinese actress under the name Li Xianglan, appearing in Japanese propaganda films. She became the film company's most popular star.

After the war, she narrowly avoided execution by firing squad in China.

After she was cleared of treason charges - the judge reportedly warned her to leave China or risk being lynched - she attempted to resurrect her film career in Japan. Under her birth name, she starred opposite Toshiro Mifune in Scandal (1950), directed by Akira Kurosawa.

A few years later, under the name Shirley Yamaguchi, she acted in low-budget Hollywood films and was one of the first native Japanese actresses to have a leading role in American movies.

In 1956, she performed in a short-lived Broadway musical production of Shangri-La, based on a James Hilton novel.

That same year, her marriage to Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi ended in divorce. In 1958, she married Japanese diplomat Hiroshi Otaka, returned to Asia, and retired from movies. Otaka died in 2001.

She was elected to Japan's upper parliament in 1974 and served until 1992. As a politician, she worked to promote relations with China and other Asian countries. - Washington Post