Sugimura Haruko was a Japanese actress born in Nishijido, Hiroshima, Japan, then a military town. Her mother was a geisha, and her father, reportedly a military man, died when she was young. She was adopted by a building materials merchant and a teahouse owner in the entertainment district. Her adoptive father was a shareholder in Kotobuki-za, the largest theater in western Japan, which exposed her to kabuki, shinpa, opera, and bunraku from an early age.

After graduating from Yamanaka High School for Girls in 1922, Sugimura moved to Tokyo with the aim of studying at Tokyo Music School but was unsuccessful in her applications. In 1924, she returned to Hiroshima and worked as a substitute music teacher at Hiroshima Jogakuin from 1925 to March 1927.

In April 1927, she relocated back to Tokyo, initially claiming to her mother that she intended to continue music studies. She resigned from her teaching position before her acceptance into the theatre company was confirmed and took the entrance exam at Tsukiji Little Theatre. That same year, she became a research student at Tsukiji Little Theatre and made her stage debut as an organist in "What Made Her Do It?" due to her musical background.

Following the dissolution of Tsukiji Little Theatre in 1929, Sugimura joined Tsukiji-za. When Tsukiji-za also dissolved in 1937, she became a member of the newly established Bungakuza theatre company.

Due to the repressive policies of the fascist government, prominent theater companies like Shinkyo and Shin-Tsukiji were disbanded, leading many actors to leave the stage or shift to the film industry. Sugimura, however, benefited from this situation, as Bungakuza, a wartime collaboration theatre group, was one of the few that avoided repression.

In 1958, she became a permanent director in the founding of the Japan Shingeki Actors Association and later served as its third president from 1995 to 1997.

During the 1960 Anpo (U.S.-Japan Security Treaty) protests, Sugimura adopted more leftist views and actively participated in anti-security demonstrations. She was also involved in establishing the Peace Seven Committee in 1961.

In 1996, Sugimura was appointed president of the Japan New Theater Actors Association.

In June 1935, Sugimura married Nagahiro Kishiro, a medical student from Keio University. He died of tuberculosis in May 1942. She was also in a relationship with playwright Morimoto Kaoru, who passed away from tuberculosis in 1946. In 1950, Sugimura married Dr. Ishiyama Kihiko, but he also died from tuberculosis in 1966.

From March 16, 1997, Sugimura’s condition began to decline, and she died of pancreatic cancer on April 4, 1997, at the Nippon Medical School Hospital in Bunkyo, Tokyo, at the age of 91.

(Source: MyDramaList) Edit Biography