Ken Watanabe profile
Actor profile

Ken Watanabe

21st October 1959 Uonuma, Niigata, Japan Acting

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.

69 Movies 29 TV Shows 104 Credits
Filmography

Movies & TV Shows

Kokuho poster
Kokuho 6th June 2025 as Hanjiro Hanai
Bel Canto poster
Bel Canto 13th September 2018 as Katsumi Hosokawa
Rage poster
Rage 17th September 2016 as Yohei Maki
Godzilla poster
Godzilla 14th May 2014 as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
Earth poster
Earth 10th October 2007 as Narrator (voice)
T.R.Y. poster
T.R.Y. 11th January 2003 as Masanobu Azuma
Bonds poster
Bonds 6th June 1998 as Detective Sako Akio
Unbound poster
Unbound 5th January 2025 as Tamema Okitsugu
Segodon poster
Segodon 7th January 2018 as Shimazu Nariakira