Miho Nakayama was an award-winning Japanese singer and actress who rose to fame with a succession of Top 10 singles and the 1995 film “Love Letter.”
- Died: December 6, 2024 (Who else died on December 6?)
- Details of death: Died in Tokyo at the age of 54.
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Miho Nakayama’s legacy
Nakayama was one of those rare artists who had fandoms in two distinct parts of the entertainment world. As a singer, she had a succession of 29 hit singles and over 20 albums to her name. As an actress, she won acclaim for her work in 1995’s “Love Letter,” for which she won several major awards, and she went on to dozens of other films and television appearances.
The acclaimed entertainer’s career began when she was discovered by a talent scout in 1985. Almost immediately, she was on both the stage and screen, with her first single and album, “C,” coming out just months before her screen debut in the live action adaptation of the manga “Be-Bop High School.” Going into the ‘90s, Nakayama enjoyed great success as a music artist, thanks to 29 straight Top 10 singles between 1985 and 1994, including five No. 1 hits in a row.
On the heels of her triple-platinum single “Tada Nakitaku Naru no” and the four-times platinum “Sekaijū no Dare Yori Kitto,” she was cast in “Love Letter,” the romantic drama that made her a star of the big screen. Nakayama won Best Actress prizes at the Blue Ribbon Awards, Yokohama Film Festival, and Hochi Film Awards for her performance. Hers was a popular face on Japanese television too, starring in dozens of TV shows and movies across four decades.
Her most recent album was 2019’s “Neuf Neuf,” and her most recent screen appearance was on the 2022 television series, “Renovation Like Magic.” Shortly prior to her death, she had cancelled a scheduled Christmas show for unspecified health reasons.
Tributes to Miho Nakayama
Full obituary: The New York Times
