is a Japanese actor. To English-speaking audiences, he is known for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in ''

Letters from Iwo Jima is a 2006 Japanese-language American war film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, starring Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya. The film portrays the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers and is a companion pie ...

'' and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in '' The Last Samurai'', for which he was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role while worki ...

. Among other awards, he has won the Japan Academy Film Prize for Best Actor twice, in 2007 for ''

Memories of Tomorrow is a 2006 Japanese drama film starring Ken Watanabe, Higuchi Kanako and directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi. The film is based on a novel of the same title published by Hiroshi Ogiwara in 2004. Plot The film begins by showing the inevitable outcome ...

'' and in 2010 for ''

Shizumanu Taiyō (lit. ''The Never-setting Sun'') is a 2009 Japanese film directed by Setsurō Wakamatsu. It is also known as ''The Unbroken'' in the United States. ''Shizumanu Taiyō'' is based on a novel by Toyoko Yamasaki which centers on Hajime Onchi, an emp ...

''. He is also known for his roles in Christopher Nolan's films '' Batman Begins'' and '' Inception'', as well as ''

Memoirs of a Geisha ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' is a historical fiction novel by American author Arthur Golden, published in 1997. The novel, told in first person perspective, tells the story of Nitta Sayuri and the many trials she faces on the path to becoming and wo ...

'', and '' Pokémon Detective Pikachu''. In 2014, he starred in the reboot ''

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film ''Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produc ...

'' as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, a role he reprised in the sequel, '' Godzilla: King of the Monsters''. He lent his voice to the fourth and fifth installments of the ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, suc ...

'' franchise respectively, '' Transformers: Age of Extinction'' and '' Transformers: The Last Knight'', as Decepticon-turned-Autobot

Drift Drift or Drifts may refer to: Geography * Drift or ford (crossing) of a river * Drift, Kentucky, unincorporated community in the United States * In Cornwall, England: ** Drift, Cornwall, village ** Drift Reservoir, associated with the village ...

. In 2022, he starred in the

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

crime drama series ''

Tokyo Vice ''Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan'' is a 2009 memoir by Jake Adelstein of his years living in Tokyo as the first non-Japanese reporter working for one of Japan's largest newspapers, ''Yomiuri Shinbun''. It was publi ...

''. He made his Broadway debut in April 2015 in Lincoln Center Theater's revival production of ''

The King and I ''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the childre ...

'' in the title role. In 2015, Watanabe received his first

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...

nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical at the

69th Tony Awards The 69th Annual Tony Awards were held on June 7, 2015, to recognize achievement in Broadway productions during the 2014–15 season. The ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and broadcast live by CBS.Gioia, Michael"This Year ...

for his role as The King. He is the first Japanese actor to be nominated in this category. Watanabe reprised his role at the London Palladium in June 2018.

Early life

Watanabe was born on October 21, 1959 in the mountain village of

Koide Koide village is located in Senapati district, Manipur, India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most pop ...

in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. His mother was a school teacher and his father taught

calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

. Due to a number of relocations for his parents' work, he spent his childhood in the villages of Irihirose and Sumon, both now part of the city of Uonuma, and in Takada, now part of the city of Jōetsu. He attended Niigata Prefectural Koide High School, where he was a member of the

concert band A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion famil ...

club, playing

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

, which he had played since childhood. After graduation from high school, in 1978 he aimed to enter

Musashino Academia Musicae , located in Tokyo, Japan, is a music conservatory founded in 1929. After World War II, the music school expanded, becoming the Musashino College of Music. It now has educational sites in Nerima, Iruma, Saitama, and Tama, Tokyo. Concert halls ...

, a conservatory in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. However, he had never received a formal musical education, and because his father became seriously ill when he was in junior high school and was unable to work, which meant that his family could no longer afford to pay for his music lessons. Because of these problems, Watanabe was forced to give up his intention of entering the conservatory. He said of the decision: "I had to give up my musical aspirations. I realised I had no talent as a musician. But I still wanted to find a way to be creative, so I decided to try acting".

Career

Japanese roles

After graduating from high school in 1978, Watanabe moved to Tokyo to begin his acting career, by enrolling in the drama school run by the En theatre troupe. While with the troupe, he was cast as the hero in the play ''Shimodani Mannencho Monogatari'', directed by the acclaimed Yukio Ninagawa. The role attracted critical and popular notice. In 1982, he made his first TV appearance in ''Michinaru Hanran'' (''Unknown Rebellion''), and his first appearance on TV as a samurai in ''Mibu no koiuta''. He made his feature-film debut in 1984 with ''

MacArthur's Children is a 1984 Japanese film. Describing the impact of the United States' occupation of Japan from the perspective of the inhabitants of a small, rural island community, the film featured the big screen debut of actor Ken Watanabe. The film was selec ...

''. Watanabe is mostly known in Japan for playing

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

, as in the 1987 ''

Dokuganryu Masamune was a regional ruler of Japan's Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful ''daimyō'' in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he was made al ...

'' (''One eyed dragon,

Masamune , was a medieval Japanese blacksmith widely acclaimed as Japan's greatest swordsmith. He created swords and daggers, known in Japanese as ''tachi'' and ''tantō'', in the ''Sōshū'' school. However, many of his forged ''tachi'' were made into ...

'') the 50-episode NHK taiga drama. He played the lead character, Matsudaira Kurō, in the television jidaigeki ''

Gokenin Zankurō is a novel by Renzaburō Shibata. The protagonist of this ''jidaigeki'' is Matsudaira clan, Matsudaira Zankurō, a low-ranking gokenin in the service of the Tokugawa shogunate. He lives with his mother Masajo in the shogunal capital of Edo. Other ...

'', which ran for several seasons. He has gone on to garner acclaim in such historical dramas as ''

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

'', '' Chūshingura'', and the movie ''Bakumatsu Junjo Den''. In 1989, while filming Haruki Kadokawa's '' Heaven and Earth'', Watanabe was diagnosed with

acute myelogenous leukemia Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal cells that build up in the bone marrow and blood and interfere with normal blood cell production. Symptoms may include ...

. He returned to acting while simultaneously undergoing

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

treatments, but in 1991 suffered a relapse. As his health improved his career picked back up. He co-starred with Kōji Yakusho in the 1998 ''Kizuna'', for which he was nominated for the

Japanese Academy Award The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii- ...

for Best Supporting Actor. In 2002, he quit the En (Engeki-Shudan En) theatre group where he had his start and joined the K Dash agency. The film ''Sennen no Koi'' (''Thousand-year Love'', based on '' The Tale of Genji'') earned him another Japanese Academy Award nomination. In 2006, he won Best Lead Actor at the Japanese Academy Awards for his role in ''

Memories of Tomorrow (Ashita no Kioku) is a 2006 Japanese drama film starring Ken Watanabe, Higuchi Kanako and directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi. The film is based on a novel of the same title published by Hiroshi Ogiwara in 2004. Plot The film begins by showing the inevitable outcom ...

'', in which he played a patient with

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

International films

Watanabe was introduced to most Western audiences in the 2003 American film '' The Last Samurai'', set in 19th Century Japan. His performance as Lord Katsumoto earned him an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Watanabe appeared in the 2005 film ''

'', playing Chairman Iwamura. That same year, he also played the decoy of Ra's al Ghul in Christopher Nolan's Batman film reboot, '' Batman Begins''. In 2006, he starred in

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...

's ''

'', playing Tadamichi Kuribayashi. He has voiced Ra's al Ghul in the ''Batman Begins'' video game. He has filmed advertisements for

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

Yakult is a Japanese sweetened probiotic milk beverage fermented with the bacteria strain '' Lacticaseibacillus casei'' Shirota. It is sold by Yakult Honsha, based in Tokyo. It is distributed through convenience stores and supermarkets in single-servin ...

, Canon and NTT DoCoMo. In 2004, he was featured in '' People Magazine''s ''50 Most Beautiful People'' edition. In 2009, he appeared in ''

The Vampire's Assistant ''Vampire Blood'' (also called the ''Cirque du Freak'' trilogy) is the first trilogy in The Saga of Darren Shan by the author Darren Shan. It contains the books ''Cirque du Freak'', '' The Vampire's Assistant'' and ''Tunnels of Blood''. These star ...

''. In 2010, he co-starred in '' Inception'', where he stars as Saito, a mark-turned-benefactor businessman of the film's heist team. In 2014, he starred in two Hollywood blockbusters ''

'' and '' Transformers: Age of Extinction''. In 2019, he starred in two other Hollywood blockbusters '' Pokémon Detective Pikachu'' and '' Godzilla: King of the Monsters''.

Television

Watanabe appears in ''

'', a television series based on the non-fiction book by

Jake Adelstein Joshua Lawrence “Jake” Adelstein (born March 28, 1969) is an Americans, American journalist, crime writer, and blogger who has spent most of his career in Japan. He is the author of ''Tokyo Vice, Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Poli ...

and written for television by

J.T. Rogers J. T. Rogers is a multiple-award-winning, internationally recognized American playwright who lives in New York. Rogers has written several plays including ''Oslo'', ''Blood and Gifts'', ''The Overwhelming'', ''White People'', and ''Madagascar''. ...

. The ten-part series was produced by

and is distributed by

and in Japan by Wowow. Tokyo Vice stars

Ansel Elgort Ansel Elgort (born March 14, 1994) is an American actor and singer. He began his acting career with a supporting role in the horror film ''Carrie'' (2013) and gained wider recognition for starring as a teenage cancer patient in the romantic dr ...

as Adelstein, an American journalist who embeds himself into the Tokyo Vice police squad to expose corruption. Ken is currently starring in the NHK World Japan's comedy ''You're a Genius!''. In April 2019, it was announced that

Warner Bros. International Television Production Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) is the global television production arm of Warner Bros. Television Group. The division was formed in 2009 to produce original programming or local adaptations of Warner Bros. formats in no ...

and Japan's

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Compan ...

network were teaming up to remake '' The Fugitive'' (1993). Watanabe is set to star in the upcoming remake, taking place in present-day Tokyo just before the opening of the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. The broadcast date has yet to be announced.

Philanthropy

On March 13, 2011, he launched a YouTube page to raise awareness about the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

and invited celebrities to add their videos. In his video in English, he made a call to action to support the victims and to raise funds in the relief effort. In conjunction, he has created his own website for the cause.

Personal life

In 1983, Watanabe married his first wife, Yumiko. In September 2005, following two years of arbitration, he and Yumiko were divorced. The couple had two children, a son, Dai Watanabe (born 1984), who is an actor, and his daughter

Anne Watanabe is a Japanese fashion model, actress, and singer. She is the daughter of film actor Ken Watanabe and his first wife Yumiko. In her modeling work, she is known by the mononym Anne.Kuhn, Anthony"For Japanese Women, The Past Is The Latest Fad"/ref> ...

(born 1986) who is an actress and fashion model. In August 2008, Dai had his first child, a son, making Ken a grandfather at the age of 48. A daughter was born to Dai in March 2010. In May 2016, Watanabe's daughter by his first marriage, Anne, gave birth to twin girls. In November 2017 she gave birth to a son, giving Watanabe five grandchildren altogether. He met his second wife, Kaho Minami, when they were both acting in a suspense drama for

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

. They married on 3 December 2005. The marriage was announced by their agencies on 7 December, just after they had attended a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

premiere of his film '' Sayuri'' together. Ken Watanabe 2010

Watanabe formally adopted Minami's son from her previous marriage to director

Jinsei Tsuji is a Tokyo-born Japanese writer, composer, and film director. In his film and singing work he uses the name Jinsei Tsuji, an alternative reading of the Japanese writing of his name. He debuted as a writer in 1989. His books and stories have be ...

, and for a time the three of them lived in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. In order to increase the amount of time the family could spend together, considering Ken's work requiring him to travel so much, they later returned to Japan. Initially Minami and Ken did not hold a wedding ceremony, but in 2010 they announced that they had held a ceremony on August 1 in Los Angeles. On May 17, 2018, Kaho Minami's agency announced that Minami and Watanabe had divorced after he had admitted to having an extramarital affair.

Health issues

In 1989 Watanabe was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. The cancer returned in 1994, but he later recovered. In 2006 Watanabe revealed in his

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

''Dare? - Who Am I?'' that prior to commencing work on ''The Last Samurai'', it was discovered that he had contracted

hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...

from a blood transfusion he received while undergoing treatment for his leukaemia. At a press conference held May 23, 2006 in Tokyo's

Ginza Ginza ( ; ja, 銀座 ) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi. It is a popular upscale shopping area of Tokyo, with numerous intern ...

district, he said he was in good condition but was still undergoing treatment. In 2016, while on a break from performing in a Broadway production of ''The King and I'', Watanabe was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He subsequently announced on February 9, 2016, that he would postpone scheduled performances in order to undergo the necessary treatment. Due to the early diagnosis, surgery was successfully able to remove the cancer.

Filmography

Films

Television

Video games

Stage

* ''Britannicus henso'' (1980) * ''Shitaya mannencho monogatari'' (1981) * ''Fuyu no raion (The Lion in Winter)'' (1981) * ''Pajaze'' (1981) * ''Platonof'' (1982) * ''Kafun netsu'' (1982) * ''Pizarro'' (1985) * ''Hamlet'' (1988) * ''Hamlet no gakuya -anten'' (2000) * ''Towa part1-kanojo'' (2000) * ''Towa part2-kanojo to kare'' (2001) * ''Dialogue with Horowitz'' (2013) * ''

'' (2015) * ''

'' (2016) * ''

'' (2018) * '' The Royal Hunt of the Sun'' (2020)

Dubbing

* ''

First Blood ''First Blood'' (also known as ''Rambo: First Blood'') is a 1982 American action film directed by Ted Kotcheff, and co-written by Sylvester Stallone, who also stars as Vietnam War veteran John Rambo. It co-stars Richard Crenna as Rambo's mentor ...

'' (1985 NTV edition) (

John Rambo John James Rambo (born July 6, 1947) is a fictional character in the ''Rambo'' franchise. He first appeared in the 1972 novel '' First Blood'' by David Morrell, but later became more famous as the protagonist of the film series, in which he was ...

(

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Enzio Stallone (; born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, ) is an American actor and filmmaker. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, h ...

))

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* *
Ken Watanabe
at the Japanese Movie Database
Ken Watanabe interview
at ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

''
Ken Watanabe interview
at About.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Watanabe, Ken 1959 births Living people 20th-century Japanese male actors 21st-century Japanese male actors Actors from Niigata Prefecture Male voice actors from Niigata Prefecture Japanese male film actors Japanese male musical theatre actors Japanese male stage actors Japanese male television actors Japanese male video game actors Japanese male voice actors Taiga drama lead actors

Early life

Career

Japanese roles

International films

Television

Philanthropy

Personal life

Health issues

Filmography

Films

Television

Video games

Stage

Dubbing

Awards and nominations

See also

References

External links