Keiko Takeshita

Japanese actress Keiko Takeshita has been acting primarily in television dramas and comedies since 1962, and has managed to find consistent work into the 21st century. Her first significant role came as Ryoko in director Kazuo Kuroki's 1975 film "Preparation for the Festival," which earned several Japanese awards in 1976. She appeared in more than a dozen roles through the 1980s, including two appearances in the popular "Otoko wa Tsurai yo," or "It's tough being a man" series, in which a vagabond named Tora-san attempts to woo a different woman each episode. The next milestone in Takeshita's career came in Yôji Yamada's 1994 drama "A Class to Remember," about a veteran high school teacher and his experiences teaching a night class to adults. The film swept the Japanese Academy Awards that year, winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay among many others, while Takeshita herself earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination. In 2006, she made her daytime debut in the well-received drama "Wagahai wa shufu de aru," about a housewife whose body is possessed by Natsume Sōseki, an iconic Japanese author. Takeshita joined the ranks of the revered Studio Ghibli animation company when she lent her voice to the original 2010 version of "The Secret World of Arrietty," and reunited with the company the following year when she voiced a lead character for "From Up on Poppy Hill" directed by Goro Miyazaki, son of auteur Hayao Miyazaki.