Ken Watanabe
Acting1959Uonuma, Niigata, Japan
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
Acting History
2026
Revenge in Kobikicho
as Kinji Shinoda
2025
The Final Piece
as Shigeyoshi Toumyo
Kokuho
as Hanjiro Hanai
Alice in Borderland
TVas Old Gentleman• 1 eps
Unbound
TVas Tamema Okitsugu
TRUE COLORS
TVas Taichirou Tsujimura
2024
Kensuke's Kingdom
as Kensuke (voice)
2023
The Creator
as Harun
2022
Tokyo Vice
TVas Hiroto Katagiri• 18 eps
Tokyo Vice
TVExecutive Producer
2020
2019
Pokémon Detective Pikachu
as Lieutenant Hide Yoshida
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
An Artist of the Floating World
as Ono Masuji
2018
Isle of Dogs
as Head Surgeon (voice)
Bel Canto
as Katsumi Hosokawa
The King and I
as The King of Siam
7 Guardians of the Tomb
as Father
Segodon
TVas Shimazu Nariakira• 17 eps
2017
Transformers: The Last Knight
as Drift (voice)
The Memories of Happiness
as Taro Miura
Dirty, Clean, & Inbetween
as Restaurant Patron
NHK WORLD PRIME
TVas Self - Presenter
2016
2015
The Secret Lives of Kyoto Folk
TVas 東雲朔太郎
2014
Snow Jack
as Reiji Kurata
Godzilla
as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
Evolution Within Extinction
as Self
Transformers: Age of Extinction
as Drift (voice)
Back of Father
TVas Takamura Kouji
2013
Unforgiven
as Jubee Kamata
2012
Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home
as Junichiro Kawaguchi
2010
2009
2006
Memories of Tomorrow
as Masayuki Saeki
Letters from Iwo Jima
as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi
2005
Year One in the North
as Komatsubara Hideaki
Batman Begins
as Ra's al Ghul
Memoirs of a Geisha
as Chairman
2004
Vessel of Sand
TVas Shuichiro Imanishi
2003
The Last Samurai
as Moritsugu Katsumoto
T.R.Y.
as Masanobu Azuma
Another Battle/Conspiracy
as Fujimaki Hiroaki
2001
Drowning Fish
as Miyota
Hojo Tokimune
TVas Hojo Tokiyori
2000
The Whispered City
as Ishida
Space Travelers
as Sakamaki ("Crusher")
Ikebukuro West Gate Park
TVas Yokoyama• 11 eps
1998
Bonds
as Detective Sako Akio
1997
Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald
as Raita Onuki
1995
Gokenin Zankuro
TVas Zankuro Matsudaira
1993
Baian the Assassin: Showdown
as Dr. Baian
The Fire Still Burns
TVas Fujiwara Tsunekiyo
1992
Ganryujima: Kojiro and Musashi
as Kojirō
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
TVas Fujieda Baian
1990
Baian the Assassin
as Dr. Baian
1989
Harimao
Producer
1987
Masamune Shogun
TVas 伊達政宗
1986
1985
1984
MacArthur's Children
as Tetsuo Nakai