76-year-old actress Yoko Minamida passed away on Wednesday morning at a Tokyo hospital. She had been hospitalized since the weekend after an emergency operation for a brain hemorrhage, though she never regained consciousness.

Minamida is survived by her husband, actor Hiroyuki Nagato (75), whom she married in 1961. Nagato had held a press conference on Tuesday night to speak about the critical condition of his wife.

Minamida began her rise to popularity in the 1953 film "Juudai no Seiten," in which she co-starred with Ayako Wakao (75). Minamida joined Nikkatsu two years later, and shortly after that she played the heroine role in the film adaptation of Shintaro Ishihara's novel "Taiyou no Kisetsu," also known as "Season of the Sun." That movie was also her first time acting with Nagato.

In 1963, Minamida was named Best Supporting Actress in the Blue Ribbon Awards for her role in "Samurai no Ko." The next year, she and Nagato started a production company called Ningen Production, which helped launch her into television dramas.

Minamida gave up acting in 2006 after she began showing signs of dementia. She was hospitalized twice earlier this year, once for a stroke and once for a disturbance of consciousness. This past Saturday, she suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage and underwent emergency surgery, but she remained unconscious in intensive care up until her death on Wednesday.