17 Facts About Masumi Okada

Masumi Okada was a French-born Japanese actor, tarento, and film producer.

Masumi Okada's father, Minoru Okada, was an artist and his mother, Ingeborg Sevaldsen, was the sister of Eline Eriksen, the model for the "Mermaid of Copenhagen".

Masumi Okada had an elder brother, Taibi Okada, who later became a tarento under the stage name 'E.

Masumi Okada was raised in a multilingual environment, fluent in French, Japanese, and English.

The elder Masumi Okada was an associate of Chaim Soutine who moved to Nice from Paris, and was oft patronized by Kunio Kishida.

Masumi Okada spent his early childhood in La Gaude until 1939.

In 1952, while still a student at SJIS, Masumi Okada debuted as an actor in a musical at the Nichigeki Music Hall.

Masumi Okada was the executive producer of "Blue", a critically acclaimed film about the relationship between two schoolgirls involved in a lesbian crush.

In 1966, Masumi Okada was cast as the newspaper reporter, "Ito Mura" in Osamu Tezuka's television series, "The Space Giants", produced by P Productions and directed by Hidehito Ueda.

Masumi Okada was a regular judge in the "Iron Chef" series, and the host-presenter for many Japanese variety and game shows, including NTV's celebrity quiz show, "Sarujie".

Masumi Okada was an exceptional Master of Ceremonies, and was the emcee for many beauty pageants held in Japan.

Masumi Okada was appointed as one of Japan's Ambassadors to the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 bicentenary, a list of events organized in celebration of the nineteenth-century Danish author's life and works.

Masumi Okada devoted his entire life to the entertainment industry and never retired from show business.

Masumi Okada then remained single for over a decade; in 1972, he married Japanese actress Midori Fujita, with whom he had three sons, the eldest of whom, Yoshihiro Masumi Okada Makoto, is currently an actor and DJ in Japan.

Shocked, Masumi Okada did not attend his son's private funeral the following day, but called a press conference a month later to refute allegations by the Shuukan Josei magazine that there had been bad blood between him and his 26-year-old son, who was an assistant stage designer with a theater company prior to his suicide.

Masumi Okada was affectionately known by the fan nickname Fanfan.

Masumi Okada suffered a relapse of his malignancy and was re-hospitalized, but succumbed to his illness at a Tokyo hospital on May 29,2006.