Ken Watanabe
Born: 1959-10-21 in Uonuma, Niigata, Japan
Known For: Acting
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
2026
- Kyotojin no Hisokana Tanoshimi Rouge: Keisho as 東雲朔太郎
- Samurai Vengeance as Kinji Shinoda
2025
- Kokuho as Hanjiro Hanai
- Unbound as Tamema Okitsugu
- TRUE COLORS as Taichirou Tsujimura
- The Final Piece as Shigeyoshi Toumyo
- LA PANTHÈRE DE CARTIER
2024
- Kensuke's Kingdom as Kensuke (voice)
- All Lives
2023
- The Creator as Harun
- True Love: Making The Creator as Self
2022
- Tokyo Vice as Hiroto Katagiri
2020
- Alice in Borderland as Old Gentleman
- Fukushima 50 as Masao Yoshida
- Toubousha
- 劇場の灯を消すな！PARCO劇場編
2019
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
- Pokémon Detective Pikachu as Lieutenant Hide Yoshida
- An Artist of the Floating World as Ono Masuji
2018
- Segodon as Shimazu Nariakira
- Isle of Dogs as Head Surgeon (voice)
- 7 Guardians of the Tomb as Father
- Bel Canto as Katsumi Hosokawa
- The King and I as The King of Siam
2017
- Transformers: The Last Knight as Drift (voice)
- NHK WORLD PRIME as Self - Presenter
- The Memories of Happiness as Taro Miura
- Dirty, Clean, & Inbetween as Restaurant Patron
2016
- The Sea of Trees as Takumi Nakamura
- Rage as Yohei Maki
- 五年目のひとり as 키자키 슈지
2015
- The Secret Lives of Kyoto Folk as 東雲朔太郎
2014
- Transformers: Age of Extinction as Drift (voice)
- Godzilla as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
- Back of Father as Takamura Kouji
- Snow Jack as Reiji Kurata
- Evolution Within Extinction as Self
2013
- Unforgiven as Jubee Kamata
2012
- Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home as Junichiro Kawaguchi
2010
- Inception as Saito
- Shanghai as Tanaka
- A School Behind Bars
2009
- Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant as Mr. Tall
- The Unbroken as Hajime Onchi
- 刑事一代 平塚八兵衛の昭和事件史
2007
- Earth as Narrator (voice)
- Red Sun, Black Sand: The Making of 'Letters from Iwo Jima' as Self
- 星ひとつの夜 as Nonoyama Hiroji
2006
- Letters from Iwo Jima as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi
- Memories of Tomorrow as Masayuki Saeki
2005
- Batman Begins as Ra's al Ghul
- Memoirs of a Geisha as Le président
- Year One in the North as Komatsubara Hideaki
- Ashes and Snow as Japanese Narrator (voice)
2004
- Vessel of Sand as Shuichiro Imanishi
2003
- The Last Samurai as Moritsugu Katsumoto
- 川、いつか海へ 6つの愛の物語
- T.R.Y. as Masanobu Azuma
- Another Battle/Conspiracy as Fujimaki Hiroaki
- 第三の時効
- 藤田宜永サスペンス「異端の夏」
2002
2001
- Hojo Tokimune as Hojo Tokiyori
- Love of a Thousand Years - Story of Genji
- Drowning Fish as Miyota
2000
- Ikebukuro West Gate Park as Yokoyama
- Space Travelers as Sakamaki ("Crusher")
- The Whispered City as Ishida
1998
- Bonds as Detective Sako Akio
- Shimei Tehai
1997
- Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald as Raita Onuki
1995
- Gokenin Zankuro as Zankuro Matsudaira
1993
- The Fire Still Burns as Fujiwara Tsunekiyo
- Baian the Assassin: Showdown as Dr. Baian
- Kagi-shi
- Hanzo, the Razor
1992
- Waga Machi
- Oda Nobunaga
- Ganryujima: Kojiro and Musashi as Kojirō
- Izakaya Chōji
- Chronicle of the Town Magistrate as Mochizuki Koheita
1991
- A Naive History of the Bakumatsu Era as Ryoma Sakamoto
- Takeda Shingen as Narrator
- Baian the Assassin as Fujieda Baian
1990
1989
- Oda Nobunaga
- Harimao ... (Producer)
1987
- Masamune Shogun as 伊達政宗
- Commando Invasion
1986
- Hanekonma as Genzo Onodera
- The Sea and Poison as Toda
- The Making of "Tampopo" as Self
1985
- Tampopo as Gun
- Kekkon Annai Mystery
1984
- A Tale of Two Truncheons
- MacArthur's Children as Tetsuo Nakai