Nogiwa Yuko was a Japanese actress. She was born in Tsubata Town in Kawakita, Ishikawa, and raised in Toyama, Toyama Prefecture, as well as Amanuma, Tokyo. She attended Rikkyo University's Department of English and American Literature. She was selected as the university's first Miss Rikkyo.

After graduating from university, she worked as an announcer for NHK in 1958. She was assigned to the Nagoya broadcasting station and put in charge of the weather and women's programs. She was involved in the reporting of the disaster of the Isewan Typhoon the following year. In 1960, she was assigned to the NHK Tokyo Broadcasting Station and moderated the tv show "Good Morning Everyone" once a week. For the next two years, she was in charge of three regular, weekly programs.

In 1962, she left NHK and transferred to an ad agency. She became worried due to the lack of clients and, believing she won't get a salary, decided to become the host of the 15-minute live program "Women's Senka" on TBS. After that, she became focused on becoming an actress.

From February 1966 until March 1967, she studied in Paris. She became the "first to wear a miniskirt in Japan".

In 1968, she was cast in the drama "Key Hunter", which would go on to air for the next 5 years with an audience rating of 30%. She also provided the drama's theme song. In 1972, she got engaged to her co-star, Chiba Shinichi (aka Sonny Chiba). She gave birth to Manase Juri in 1975 at the age of 38, becoming the oldest birth on record from entertainers of the time.

In 1992, she became a big hit in the TV drama "Zutto Anata ga Sukidatta", playing the mother-in-law. She then became of the regular cast of TBS dramas like "Double Kitchen", "Dare ni mo Ienai", "Sweet Home", and "Chonana no Yome".

In 1994, due to wanting to stay in Japan, Nogiwa divorced Sonny Chiba, who wanted to move to the United States.

In March 2011, she spoke out against nuclear power plants and replaced the lighting in her home with LEDs to save energy. In 2013, she was one of the entertainers who spoke out against the enactment of the Specially Designated Secrets Act. In November 2016, she was appointed the public relations envoy of Tsubata Town, Kawakita.

In 2014, Nogiwa was diagnosed with early lung adenocarcinoma and underwent surgery. She had another surgery in 2015 to remove a tumor. Her cancer returned in 2016 while she was filming for "Yasuragi no Sato". Her physical condition kept deteriorating, but she continued shooting the drama until May 7, 2017. She was hospitalized due to pneumonia the following day. After that, however, she did not recover and died on June 13, 2017. Edit Biography