Tanie Kitabayashi (北林谷栄, Kitabayashi Tanie, May 21, 1911 – April 27, 2010) was a Japanese actress and voice actress. Born Reiko Ando in Tokyo, she began as a stage actress. Early in her career, she became well known for portraying older women. Kitabayashi was a founding member of the famed Mingei Theatre, founded in 1950. In 1960, she won best actress awards at the 10th Blue Ribbon Awards and at the Mainichi Film Awards for Kiku to Isamu. She also won the Japan Academy Prize for best actress in Rainbow Kids (1991), a film that also earned her honors from the Mainichi Film Awards and from Kinema Junpo. She died on April 27, 2010, of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital. She was 98.
Known For
My Neighbor Totoro
(1988)
Granny (voice)
The Burmese Harp
(1956)
Scandal
(1950)
Yasu Hiruta
Station
(1981)
Masayo Mikami
Proof of the Man
(1977)
Odd Obsession
(1959)
Hana
The Insect Woman
(1963)
Madam
Jinsei Gekijo: dai ichi bu
(1952)
Full Filmography
Acting
Learn from Experience, Part Two
(1937)
White Beast
(1950)
Scandal
(1950)
Yasu Hiruta
Les Miserables I: God and the Devil
(1950)
Les Miserables II: Banner of Love and Freedom
(1950)
The Bitch
(1951)
Tami
Koibito
(1951)
Mrs. Saeki
男の哀愁
(1951)
限りなき情熱
(1951)
Children of Hiroshima
(1952)
Otoyo
Haha no nai ko to ko no nai haha to
(1952)
Aunt Otora
Muntinlupa no yo wa fukete
(1952)
Fusako Kawai
Become a Mother, Become a Woman
(1952)
Hide
Beauty and the Thief
(1952)
Mrs. Inokuma
Farewell to Spring
(1952)
Old woman
Jinsei Gekijo: dai ichi bu
(1952)
A Japanese Tragedy
(1953)
Ichizo's wife
A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land
(1953)
Ohana
Before Dawn
(1953)
Ofuki
Miniature
(1953)
Yokubo
(1953)
Jūdai no yūwaku
(1953)
A Billionaire
(1954)
The Street Without Sun
(1954)
Aunt of Matsutaro
Tomoshibi
(1954)
The Heart
(1955)
Hioki's mother
A Hole of My Own Making
(1955)
The Motherless
(1955)
The Maid's Kid
(1955)
Policeman's Diary, Part 2
(1955)
The Dawn of Judo
(1955)
How Sorrowful
(1956)
Our Town
(1956)
Otaka
Darkness at Noon
(1956)
Satoe Miyazaki
The Shadow of Fear
(1956)
Love is Lost
(1956)
Nobuyo
The Burmese Harp
(1956)
Summer Storm
(1956)
Mitsu Asai
Shiawase wa doko ni
(1956)
Kane
Jigoku no hatoba
(1956)
Actress
(1956)
Saigo no sentō-ki
(1956)
Hole in One
(1957)
Suga Akabane
The Flesh Is Weak
(1957)
Doctor
Conflagration
(1958)
Aki, Goichi's mother
Stakeout
(1958)
Chance Meeting
(1958)
Tetsu Koyanagi
Musume no boken
(1958)
Odd Obsession
(1959)
Hana
The Human Wall
(1959)
Kiku and Isamu: Two Siblings Born in Japan
(1959)
Grandma Shigeko
The Sun's Burial
(1960)
Chika, Batasuke's wife
Bonchi
(1960)
Buddha
(1961)
Sumi
Enraptured
(1961)
Blind Devotion
(1961)
Saoko
Marriageable Age
(1961)
A Good Man, A Good Day
(1961)
Cupola, Where the Furnaces Glow
(1962)
Ume
Nippon no obaachan
(1962)
Kumi
The Young and Bad
(1962)
Ningen Gari
(1962)
Children of Izu
(1962)
Red Bud and White Flower
(1962)
Dolls floating down the river
(1962)
Fuku
Asu no hanayome
(1962)
Ashita au hito
(1962)
The Insect Woman
(1963)
Madam
All My Children
(1963)
Fusakichi's mother
Bad Girl
(1963)
Beyond the Green Hills
(1963)
Shiraki, Teacher
The Third Will
(1963)
Kimie
Only on Mondays
(1964)
Yuka's mother
The Long Death
(1964)
A Story from Echigo
(1964)
Welcome, My Baby
(1964)
Yuki Nishizaka
Intentions of Murder
(1964)
Kinu Takahashi
Gazing at Love and Death
(1964)
Tale of Japanese Burglars
(1965)
Hayashida's mother
The Start of Life
(1965)
Tomi Ishiguro
A Chain of Islands
(1965)
Kikuko Sasaki
Blood and Sea
(1965)
Wrath of Daimajin
(1966)
Old Woman Kane
A Windmill, Tulips and Love
(1966)
Song of Love
(1967)
Orin
Greatest Challenge of All
(1967)
Journey to the North
(1967)
Hana Kanai
The Human Bullet
(1968)
The Final Winner?
(1968)
Dorei kōjō
(1968)
The Sands of Kurobe
(1968)
Heat Wave Island
(1969)
Thousand Cranes
(1969)
Toyo
River Without a Bridge
(1969)
Apart from Life
(1970)
Matsuko Fukuji
The Little Hero
(1970)
Terror in the Streets
(1970)
Shino
Oh, My Comrade!
(1970)
Harumi
River Without a Bridge Part 2
(1970)
Pure Land, Poisoned Sea
(1970)
Goze / Narrator (voice)
Patience Has An End
(1971)
Price of Life
(1971)
Tome
A Woman Called En
(1971)
Mysterious Thirteen Nights: Chapter 3 - The Mysterious Haunted Mansion
(1971)
Musume-tachi wa kaze ni mukatte
(1972)
Moko's mother
My Voiceless Friends
(1972)
Kobayashi Takiji
(1974)
The Possessed
(1976)
The Sea of Eden
(1976)
The Wild Daisy
(1977)
Tamiko's Grandmother
Proof of the Man
(1977)
Never Give Up
(1978)
Kiyo Matsushita
Gassan
(1979)
Nomugi Pass
(1979)
The Three Undelivered Letters
(1979)
Writhing Tongue
(1980)
Akira's mother
Station
(1981)
Masayo Mikami
Call from Darkness
(1981)
Sukeno
Suspicion
(1982)
Harue Shirakawa
White Snake Enchantment
(1983)
Tane
Amagi Pass
(1983)
Tea house's old woman
Our Teacher
(1983)
Tora-san's Song of Love
(1983)
The Burmese Harp
(1985)
Old Woman
Love: Starting on a Journey
(1985)
Haze of Love
(1985)
Twilight of the Cockroaches
(1987)
Torah (voice)
My Neighbor Totoro
(1988)
Granny (voice)
Rikyu
(1989)
Mother
Rainbow Kids
(1991)
Mrs. Toshiko 'Toji' Yanagawa
Letter from the Mountain
(2002)
Oume
Resurrection
(2003)
Saki Naito