Kirin Kiki (樹木 希林, Kiki Kirin) (15 January 1943 – 15 September 2018) was a Japanese actress for Japanese cinema and television.
Kirin Kiki | |
---|---|
樹木 希林 | |
Born | Keiko Nakatani (中谷 啓子, Nakatani Keiko) January 15, 1943 Tokyo, Japan |
Died | September 15, 2018 Tokyo, Japan | (aged 75)
Other names | Chiho Yūki (悠木千帆, Yūki Chiho) first stage name; Keiko Uchida (内田 啓子, Uchida Keiko) current legal name |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1961–2018 |
Spouses | |
Children | 1 |
Kiki was born on January 15, 1943, in Kanda, Tokyo. Her father was a master of the biwa lute and a former police officer.[1][2] Her mother owned a cafe in Jinbōchō, Tokyo and a restaurant in Noge, Yokohama, the latter being Kiki's maternal parents' home.[3] Her mother was seven years senior to her father and had a child from both her two previous marriages.[2]
After graduating from high school, she started her acting career in the early 1960s as a member of the Bungakuza theater troupe using the stage name Chiho Yūki (悠木千帆).[4] She eventually gained fame for performing uniquely comedic and eccentric roles on such television shows as Jikan desu yo and Terauchi Kantarō ikka and in television commercials.[4] She changed her name to "Kirin Kiki" when, after being asked on a television show to auction off something of hers, she ended up selling her first stage name, claiming she had "nothing else to sell."[1]
While battling various ailments, including a detached retina in 2003 and breast cancer in 2005,[5] Kiki continued to act and won several awards, including the best actress Japan Academy Prize for Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad in 2008,[6] the best supporting actress award from the Yokohama Film Festival for her work in Kamikaze Girls and Half a Confession in 2004,[7] and the best supporting actress Blue Ribbon Award for Still Walking in 2008.[8]
Kiki married fellow Bungakuza actor Shin Kishida. They separated in 1968. She married musician Yuya Uchida in 1973, and remained legally married to him though they separated in 1975.[9] Their daughter, Yayako Uchid , is an essayist and musician, and portrayed the younger self of Kiki's character in the film Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad. Yayako Uchida is married to the actor Masahiro Motoki,[1] who was adopted into the Uchida family as a mukoyōshi.[10] Kirin's granddaughter Kyara Uchida has appeared with her in two films, I Wish and Sweet Bean.
Kiki was diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and underwent a mastectomy.[11] She died of cancer, and related illnesses, on 15 September 2018.[12]