Keiko Takeshita is a Japanese actress with a career spanning over five decades, during which she has contributed significantly to both live-action and animated film and television. Born on September 15, 1953, in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, she began her professional acting career in the early 1970s. While she is a celebrated figure in live-action dramas and films, her work as a voice actor in anime constitutes a notable part of her extensive body of work.

In the realm of anime, Takeshita is known for several prominent roles, particularly in the early 1980s and later in collaborations with Studio Ghibli. One of her earlier and most iconic voice roles was as the Phoenix in the 1980 film Phoenix 2772 - Space Firebird, a cosmic entity that serves as a guide and judge. The following year, in 1981, she lent her voice to the titular character in the anime film Swan Lake, voicing Princess Odette. Another significant role from this period was as Hide Ei in the 2005 animated war drama The Glass Rabbit, a film adapted from a novel about the Tokyo air raids of World War II.

Beginning in 2010, Takeshita became a recurring presence in the films of Studio Ghibli. She voiced the kind-hearted housekeeper Sadako Maki in The Secret World of Arrietty (2010), the human who unknowingly lives alongside the tiny Borrower family. The next year, in 2011, she took on the role of Hana Matsuzaki, the strong-willed and caring matron of a student boarding house, in From Up on Poppy Hill. She continued her collaboration with the studio by voicing the mother of the protagonist, Jiro Horikoshi, in Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises in 2013. Her association with the studio and its legacy continued into the next decade with a voice role in Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron in 2023. While her role as the Narrator in Dr. Pinoko no Mori no Bōken is listed among her credits, it represents one of her many voice performances across various projects.

Throughout her career, Takeshita has received recognition for her acting abilities. She was awarded the Newcomer of the Year at the 2nd Elan d'or Awards in 1978. For her performance in the live-action film A Class to Remember, she won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 6th Nikkan Sports Film Awards in 1993 and received a nomination in the same category at the 17th Japan Academy Film Prize in 1994. Her body of work demonstrates a career of sustained achievement, moving fluidly between leading roles in live-action television dramas and providing memorable voices for some of Japan's most beloved animated films.