Onodera Kumiko, a renowned Japanese actress, was born in Fujinomiya, Japan. Her early life was marked by frequent moves due to her father's profession as a chemistry teacher and his health concerns. The family relocated to Tokushima Prefecture and later to Iwaki in Fukushima Prefecture, where Kumiko spent her childhood and adolescence.
Kumiko's parents, her father from Hokkaido and her mother a nurse, met while her father was undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. She has a younger sister and entered the acting profession at the age of eighteen. Without informing her parents, Kumiko auditioned for a role in the movie "Tabi No Omasa" and secured the part of a girl who commits suicide.
Her debut film, "Journey Into Solitude," was released in 1972, and she was paid a salary of approximately $800. Although she was happy with her earnings, Kumiko had initially intended to attend university and was not set on becoming an actress. However, after failing her university entrance examination, she relocated to Tokyo and began to focus on her acting career.
Kumiko's breakthrough role came in 1974 with the film "Aka Chôchin," which made her a household name in Japan. She went on to win numerous awards, including the Best Actress award at the Mainichi Film Awards for her role in "Aniimoto" (1976). Her international recognition came when she won the Montreal Film Festival Award in Canada for her role in "Deep River" (1995).
In addition to her acting career, Kumiko has also pursued a music career, releasing pop full-length albums in the mid-1970s and contributing lyrics to other artists' albums. She has been married twice, first to composer Iwaku Shigeru from 1979 to 1989, and then to a Japanese-American man from 2004 to 2005. Her second marriage lasted from 2006 to 2014.
Kumiko has been open about her personal struggles, including a minor scandal surrounding her shotgun wedding and her experiences with co-star Kenichi Hagiwara during the filming of "Toukou No Ki." She has also been affected by the loss of her son in an accident in 2015.
In her personal life, Kumiko is an avid reader, writer, traveler, and yogi. She has authored four books and graduated from Waseda University in Political Science in 2009. Kumiko's favorite bands include Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, and Soundgarden, and she often appears on Japanese talk shows.
