Ken Watanabe
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- 21 October 1959 · Uonuma, Niigata, Japan
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.
Known for
Acting 70
- 2026Samurai Vengeance as Kinji Shinoda
- 2025The Final Piece as Shigeyoshi Toumyo
- 2025LA PANTHÈRE DE CARTIER
- 2025Kokuho as Hanjiro Hanai
- 2024All Lives
- 2024Kensuke's Kingdom as Kensuke (voice)
- 2023True Love: Making The Creator as Self
- 2023The Creator as Harun
- 2020劇場の灯を消すな！PARCO劇場編
- 2020Fukushima 50 as Masao Yoshida
- 2019Godzilla: King of the Monsters as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
- 2019Pokémon Detective Pikachu as Lieutenant Hide Yoshida
- 2019An Artist of the Floating World as Ono Masuji
- 2018The King and I as The King of Siam
- 2018Bel Canto as Katsumi Hosokawa
- 2018Isle of Dogs as Head Surgeon (voice)
- 20187 Guardians of the Tomb as Father
- 2017Transformers: The Last Knight as Drift (voice)
- 2017Dirty, Clean, & Inbetween as Restaurant Patron
- 2017The Memories of Happiness as Taro Miura
- 2016Rage as Yohei Maki
- 2016The Sea of Trees as Takumi Nakamura
- 2014Evolution Within Extinction as Self
- 2014Snow Jack as Reiji Kurata
- 2014Transformers: Age of Extinction as Drift (voice)
- 2014Godzilla as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
- 2013Unforgiven as Jubee Kamata
- 2012Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home as Junichiro Kawaguchi
- 2011Ai inochi - Shinjuku Kabukicho Kakekomi Dera -
- 2010A School Behind Bars
- 2010Inception as Saito
- 2010Shanghai as Tanaka
- 2009Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant as Mr. Tall
- 2009The Unbroken as Hajime Onchi
- 2008ツナガルココロ 3 LOVE STORIES
- 2007Earth as Narrator (voice)
- 2007星ひとつの夜 as Nonoyama Hiroji
- 2007Red Sun, Black Sand: The Making of 'Letters from Iwo Jima' as Self
- 2006Letters from Iwo Jima as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi
- 2006Memories of Tomorrow as Masayuki Saeki
- 2005Memoirs of a Geisha as Chairman
- 2005Batman Begins as Ra's al Ghul
- 2005Ashes and Snow as Japanese Narrator (voice)
- 2005Year One in the North as Komatsubara Hideaki
- 2003The Last Samurai as Moritsugu Katsumoto
- 2003第三の時効
- 2003Another Battle/Conspiracy as Fujimaki Hiroaki
- 2003T.R.Y. as Masanobu Azuma
- 2002Dawn of a New Day: The Man Behind VHS as Okubo
- 2001Love of a Thousand Years - Story of Genji
- 2001Drowning Fish as Miyota
- 2001Proof of the Man 2001 as Munesue Koichiro
- 2000The Whispered City as Ishida
- 2000Space Travelers as Sakamaki ("Crusher")
- 1998Bonds as Detective Sako Akio
- 1997Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald as Raita Onuki
- 1993Baian the Assassin: Showdown as Dr. Baian
- 1993Hanzo, the Razor
- 1992Chronicle of the Town Magistrate as Mochizuki Koheita
- 1992Oda Nobunaga
- 1992Ganryujima: Kojiro and Musashi as Kojirō
- 1991A Naive History of the Bakumatsu Era as Ryoma Sakamoto
- 1991Takeda Shingen as Narrator
- 1990Baian the Assassin as Dr. Baian
- 1987Commando Invasion
- 1986The Sea and Poison as Toda
- 1986The Making of "Tampopo" as Self
- 1985Tampopo as Gun
- 1985Kekkon Annai Mystery
- 1984MacArthur's Children as Tetsuo Nakai
Production 3
- 2012Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home · production manager
- 2006Memories of Tomorrow · executive producer
- 1989Harimao · producer