Akio Isono

Akio Isono October 20 1910 January 21 1986 was born in Tsurumi near Yokohama in 1910 His family ran a newspaper sales business In 1917 at the age of seven he became a pupil of Hanayanagi Shotaro who was known as a great actor of the new school and trod the boards for the first time in child roles at the Hongoza theater After that he went on to perform in theaters run by Shochiku In 1921 he performed in his first leading film role in Yamagureru under the direction of Ushihara Kiyohiko and he then alternated leading roles on the stage with those at Shochiku Pictures In 1925 he became an exclusive actor for Shochiku Cinema Kamata Studios and starred in a number of films Isono together with Mitsui Hideo and Abe Shozaburo won great popularity as the Yotamono Trio The Yotamono Trio appeared in a series of movies beginning with the 1931 film Reijo to Yotamono In 1932 his excellent performance in the film Arashi no Naka no Shojo directed by Shimazu Yasujiro won great critical acclaim In 1943 he left Shochiku and joined the theater company Warai no Okoku After the war he continued to appear in supporting roles mainly for Shochiku but from the late 1960s he began appearing exclusively in TV dramas His gentle and humorous acting style won him great acclaim He died of lung cancer at 818 am on January 21 1986 at the Ofuna Kyosai Hospital in Totsuka Ward Yokohama City Kanagawa Prefecture He was 75 years old