Reiko Ohara

was a Japanese actress. She is best known for her roles in the taiga dramas Kasuga the Court Lady (1989) and Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1998), television drama Rikon Tomodachi (1980), and film Ohan (1984). Her life was adapted into the television drama Actress Reiko: Like a Flame in 2013. Biography Early life Ohara was born on November 13, 1946, in Bunkyō, Tokyo to a family that sold Japanese confectionery in the Hongō area. When she was eight, her parents divorced due to her father's affair; she and her mother moved to Akabane while her younger brother stayed with their father. Career She was scouted by Nao Ōno, the president of Tokyo Broadcasting and the eldest son of Banboku Ōno. She had a bit part in Let's Meet in a Dream in 1962, though she made her debut two years later in Happiness Exam and joined Toei the year after that. Alongside Yuki Jōno, who had joined Toei around the same time, she was promoted as Toei's most popular new actress, and became popular in 1966 with the Golden Week film Abashiri Prison: Showdown in the WIlderness, starring Ken Takakura. Around this period Toei began producing "delinquent sensitivity films", making most of Ohara's roles bar hostesses or prostitutes. In 1971, when her contract with Toei expired, she transferred to Watanabe Productions. However, in February 1972, when announcing Ohara's engagement with Tsunehiko Watase, Sports Nippon referred to her as a Toei actress, and Shigeru Okada, then president of Toei, told the press that the couple were "our company's leading stars" and that he looks forward to working with them in the future. Ohara had first co-starred with Watase in Three Bees in 1970. She married Watase in 1973 and they divorced five years later. In 1975, Ohara was diagnosed with Guillain–Barré syndrome.