Ken Watanabe
Personal details
  • Official sites :

    https://www.kenwatanabe-official.com/

  • Born:
    • Birthday: 1959-10-21
    • Born Place: Uonuma, Niigata, Japan
  • Also Known As:

    渡邊謙, 渡辺 謙, کِن واتانابه, ک ِن واتانابه

Ken Watanabe

Ken Watanabe is an internationally acclaimed Japanese actor celebrated for his commanding presence and versatile performances in both Japanese and Hollywood productions. Born on October 21, 1959, in Koide, Niigata, Japan, he initially aspired to be a musician, playing the trumpet in his high school band, but financial difficulties led him to pursue acting. He began his career on stage with the Tokyo-based theater troupe En and gained significant fame in Japan through historical dramas, most notably the highly popular 1987 NHK Taiga drama Dokuganryū Masamune, where he played the lead samurai.Watanabe achieved international recognition with his Oscar-nominated role as the tragic hero Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in the 2003 film The Last Samurai. This breakthrough led to a successful career in Hollywood, including prominent roles in Christopher Nolan's films Batman Begins (2005) and Inception (2010), as well as Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, and as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa in the Godzilla reboot series. Despite a battle with acute myelogenous leukemia in the late 1980s and early 1990s that temporarily interrupted his career, he returned to acting with renewed acclaim, winning the Japan Academy Film Prize for Best Actor twice for Memories of Tomorrow (2007) and The Unbroken (2010). He also made his Broadway debut in the 2015 revival of The King and I, earning a Tony Award nomination. His more recent work includes the HBO Max series Tokyo Vice.

Person History