Mari Natsuki Movies and Career Information

Mari Natsuki (夏木 マリ Natsuki Mari), real name Junko Nakajima (中島 淳子 Nakajima Junko; born 2 May 1952), is a Japanese singer, dancer and actress. She was born in Tokyo, Japan, and started work as a singer from a very young age, her specialty being jazz and a level of sensuality that was somewhat shocking at the time. She did not marry, which made her quite an icon. But in 2007 she announced that she was engaged to marry percussionist Nobu Saito in spring 2008. Today she continues to work as a singer and performer, as well as an actress. She participates in a wide variety of musical theatre including that of Yukio Ninagawa. She provided the voice of the witch Yubaba in Hayao Miyazaki's movie, Spirited Away, played the young witch's mother in the TV remake of Bewitched in Tokyo, and has twice been nominated for a Japanese Academy Award. She plays the character Big Mama in the Japanese version of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. She has also acted in television dramas, such as the 2005 series Nobuta wo Produce, in which she played the Vice Principal, Katharine.