Taichi Kiwako, also known by her stage name Shimura Taeko, was a Japanese actress born in Nakano, Tokyo, Japan. She was separated from her biological mother shortly after birth and adopted by her foster parents, a fact she discovered during high school.

Kiwako attended Ushigome Nakano Elementary School, and Chiyoda Women's School, and graduated from Shoin High School. In 1959, while still in high school, she joined Toei as part of its 6th generation of new faces. She worked with Toei until 1963 when she left to join the Actor's Studio. After a year’s delay, she graduated with the studio's 16th class and subsequently joined the Bungakuza Theater Company in 1967.

In her personal life, Kiwako married actor Akino Taisaku in 1974, a fellow Actor’s Studio alumnus, but the marriage ended in divorce shortly thereafter. She remained single for the rest of her life.

Kiwako died on October 13, 1992, in a car accident in Ito City, Shizuoka Prefecture. The vehicle fell off a pier into the sea. While the driver and two other passengers escaped by swimming, Kiwako, who could not swim and had been drinking heavily before the accident, did not survive.

(Source: MyDramaList) Edit Biography