Miyoshi Umeki

Miyoshi Umeki, Japanese-American actress and singer (died 2007)

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Born: May 8, 1929
Died: August 28, 2007
Zodiac sign: Taurus
Birth year: 1929

About Miyoshi Umeki

Miyoshi Umeki (梅木美代志, Umeki Miyoshi; or ミヨシ・ウメキ Miyoshi Umeki, May 8, 1929 – August 28, 2007) was a Japanese and American singer and actress. She was the first East Asia-born woman to win an Academy Award for acting, winning Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Sayonara (1957). She was also a three-time Golden Globe nominee, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song. Umeki was best known for her Oscar-winning role as Katsumi in Sayonara (1957), as Mei Li in both the Broadway musical and 1961 film Flower Drum Song, and as Mrs. She was nominated for the Tony Award and Golden Globe Award and was the first East Asia-born woman to win an Academy Award for acting.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Miyoshi Umeki was born

Miyoshi Umeki was born in 1929. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1929

#1 song"Singin' in the Rain"
Top movieThe Broadway Melody (first Best Picture winner)
Best-selling bookA Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentFirst baseball All-Star Game proposed
Top headlineStock market crashes on Black Tuesday
Technology milestoneFirst Academy Awards ceremony held
Defining fadYo-yos
Notable inventionCar radio
World population2.10 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderHerbert Hoover
Sports championPhiladelphia Athletics (World Series)
U.S. population121.8M

1929 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Miyoshi Umeki's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1929	2026
Gas	$0.21	$3.45/gal
Average home	$6,300	$435,000
Average income	$3,850	$67,500
Movie ticket	$0.25	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.02	$0.73
Population	121.8M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, MusicBrainz, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.