Birth and Youth
Helen was born in Kyoto on 6 October 1946 but has not revealed who her father was. After her marriage, she acknowledged that her first name was derived from Helen Keller, a person her father admired. In Japan single parent women generally have a lower social status, as did entertainers, and as an American-Japanese shortly after WWII, Helen suffered much bullying in her early age.
Helen's made her stage debut as a dancer in Yoshimoto Kogyo in 1963. Her purity and eagerness was loved by audiences and she immediately became one of the leading actresses in Yoshimoto New Comedy with the stage name "Helen Sugimoto".
Read more about this topic: Helen Nishikawa
Famous quotes containing the words birth and/or youth:
“But whoever gives birth to useless children, what would you say of him except that he has bred sorrows for himself, and furnishes laughter for his enemies.”
—Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)
“Hardly ever can a youth transferred to the society of his betters unlearn the nasality and other vices of speech bred in him by the associations of his growing years. Hardly ever, indeed, no matter how much money there be in his pocket, can he ever learn to dress like a gentleman-born. The merchants offer their wares as eagerly to him as to the veriest “swell,” but he simply cannot buy the right things.”
—William James (1842–1910)