Akiko Wakabayashi
She was a relative unknown actress in Japan through the 1950’s and ‘60s, but Akiko Wakabayashi (say that three times fast! Go! We’ll wait…) got a breakthrough role in the 1962 film, King Kong vs. Godzilla.
Akiko was then cast in a minor role for You Only Live Twice, but her acting skills proved better than the producers anticipated and she was offered a larger role, that of Aki, the first non-European Bond girl in the series. Though the role was successful, Wakabayashi would retire after her big Bond role.
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