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
- Revenge in Kobikicho as Kinji Shinoda
2025
- Kokuho as Hanjiro Hanai
- The Cartier Panther
- The Final Piece as Shigeyoshi Toumyo
- Unbound as Tamema Okitsugu
- TRUE COLORS as Taichirou Tsujimura
2024
- All Lives
- Kensuke's Kingdom as Kensuke (voice)
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
- 劇場の灯を消すな！PARCO劇場編
- Toubousha
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
- Bel Canto as Katsumi Hosokawa
- Isle of Dogs as Head Surgeon (voice)
- Segodon as Shimazu Nariakira
- The King and I as The King of Siam
- 7 Guardians of the Tomb as Father
2017
- Transformers: The Last Knight as Drift (voice)
- NHK WORLD PRIME as Self - Presenter
- Dirty, Clean, & Inbetween as Restaurant Patron
- The Memories of Happiness as Taro Miura
2016
- Rage as Yohei Maki
- The Sea of Trees as Takumi Nakamura
- 五年目のひとり as 키자키 슈지
2014
- Transformers: Age of Extinction as Drift (voice)
- Godzilla as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
- Snow Jack as Reiji Kurata
- Back of Father as Takamura Kouji
- Evolution Within Extinction as Self
2013
- Unforgiven as Jubee Kamata
2012
- Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home as Junichiro Kawaguchi
2010
- Inception as Saito
- A School Behind Bars
- Shanghai as Tanaka
2009
- Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant as Mr. Tall
- The Unbroken as Hajime Onchi
2007
- 星ひとつの夜 as Nonoyama Hiroji
- Earth as Narrator (voice)
- Red Sun, Black Sand: The Making of 'Letters from Iwo Jima' as Self
2006
- Memories of Tomorrow as Masayuki Saeki
- Letters from Iwo Jima as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi
2005
- Batman Begins as Ra's al Ghul
- Memoirs of a Geisha as Chairman
- Year One in the North as Komatsubara Hideaki
2004
- Vessel of Sand as Shuichiro Imanishi
2003
- The Last Samurai as Moritsugu Katsumoto
- Another Battle/Conspiracy as Fujimaki Hiroaki
- T.R.Y. as Masanobu Azuma
- 川、いつか海へ 6つの愛の物語
- 藤田宜永サスペンス「異端の夏」
- 第三の時効
2002
2001
- Drowning Fish as Miyota
- Hojo Tokimune as Hojo Tokiyori
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
- Baian the Assassin: Showdown as Dr. Baian
- Hanzo, the Razor
- The Fire Still Burns as Fujiwara Tsunekiyo
- Kagi-shi
1992
- Chronicle of the Town Magistrate as Mochizuki Koheita
- Ganryujima: Kojiro and Musashi as Kojirō
- Oda Nobunaga
- Izakaya Chōji
- Waga Machi
1991
- Baian the Assassin as Fujieda Baian
- A Naive History of the Bakumatsu Era as Ryoma Sakamoto
1990
1989
- Harimao ... (Producer)
- Oda Nobunaga
1987
- Masamune Shogun as 伊達政宗
- Commando Invasion
1986
- The Sea and Poison as Toda
- Hanekonma as Genzo Onodera
- The Making of "Tampopo" as Self
1985
- Tampopo as Gun
- Kekkon Annai Mystery
1984
- MacArthur's Children as Tetsuo Nakai
- A Tale of Two Truncheons