Ken Watanabe

Born: 1959-10-21, Uonuma, Niigata, Japan

Biography

Ken Watanabe (born October 21, 1959) is a Japanese stage, film, and television actor. To English-speaking audiences he is known for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in The Last Samurai, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Among other awards, he has won the Japan Academy Prize for Best Actor twice, in 2007 for Memories of Tomorrow and in 2010 for Shizumanu Taiyō. He is also known for his roles in director Christopher Nolan's Hollywood blockbusters Batman Begins and Inception.

Filmography

• 今際の国のアリス (2020)
• Inception (2010)
• Batman Begins (2005)
• Tokyo Vice (2022)
• Tokyo Vice (2022)
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
• Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
• The Last Samurai (2003)
• Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
• The Creator (2023)
• Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)
• 世にも奇妙な物語特別編 (1990)
• Godzilla (2014)
• 西郷どん (2018)
• Isle of Dogs (2018)
• はね駒 (1986)
• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
• Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
• 国宝 (2025)
• Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009)
• The Sea of Trees (2016)
• Fukushima 50 (2020)
• Shanghai (2010)
• Kensuke's Kingdom (2024)
• タンポポ (1985)
• Earth (2007)
• おやじの背中 (2014)
• 7 Guardians of the Tomb (2018)
• 炎立つ (1993)
• Bel Canto (2018)