Ken Watanabe

Personal Info

Birthday

October 21, 1959

(65 years old)

Place of Birth

Uonuma, Niigata, Japan

Also Known As

渡邊謙

渡辺謙

کِن واتانابه

ک ِن واتانابه

Ken Watanabe

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.

Known For

Inception

Batman Begins

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Tokyo Vice

The Creator

Transformers: The Last Knight

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Godzilla

Filmography

2025
Kokuho
as Hanjiro
2024
Kensuke's Kingdom
as Kensuke (voice)
2023
True Love: Making The Creator
as Self
The Creator
as Harun
2020
Fukushima 50
as Masao Yoshida
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
The King and I
as The King of Siam
Bel Canto
as Katsumi Hosokawa
Isle of Dogs
as Head Surgeon (voice)
7 Guardians of the Tomb
as Father
2017
Transformers: The Last Knight
as Drift (voice)
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
2014
Evolution Within Extinction
as Self
Snow Jack
as Reiji Kurata
Transformers: Age of Extinction
as Drift (voice)
Godzilla
as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
2013
Unforgiven
as Jubee Kamata
2012
Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home
as Junichiro Kawaguchi
2010
Inception
as Saito
Shanghai
as Tanaka
2009
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
as Mr. Tall
The Unbroken
as Hajime Onchi
2007
Earth
as Narrator (voice)
Red Sun, Black Sand: The Making of 'Letters from Iwo Jima'
as Self
2006
Letters from Iwo Jima
as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi
Memories of Tomorrow
as Masayuki Saeki
2005
Memoirs of a Geisha
as Chairman
Batman Begins
as Ra's al Ghul
Year One in the North
as Komatsubara Hideaki
2003
The Last Samurai
as Moritsugu Katsumoto
Another Battle/Conspiracy
as Fujimaki Hiroaki
T.R.Y.
as Masanobu Azuma
2002
Dawn of a New Day: The Man Behind VHS
as Okubo
2001
Drowning Fish
as Miyota
2000
The Whispered City
as Ishida
Space Travelers
as Sakamaki ("Crusher")
1998
Bonds
as Detective Sako Akio
1997
Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald
as Raita Onuki
1993
Baian the Assassin: Showdown
as Dr. Baian
1992
Chronicle of the Town Magistrate
as Mochizuki Koheita
Ganryujima: Kojiro and Musashi
as Kojirō
1991
A Naive History of the Bakumatsu Era
as Ryoma Sakamoto
1986
The Sea and Poison
as Toda
The Making of "Tampopo"
as Self
1985
Tampopo
as Gun
1984
MacArthur's Children
as Tetsuo Nakai