Ken Watanabe

Actor

Born: October 21, 1959 (66 years old)

Place of birth: Uonuma, 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.

Filmography (43)

• The Final Piece (2025, ★ 9.4)
• Samurai Vengeance (2026, ★ 9.2)
• Masamune Shogun (1987, ★ 9.2)
• Unbound (2025, ★ 9.3)
• Batman Begins (2005, ★ 7.7)
• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006, ★ 7.5)
• The Last Samurai (2003, ★ 7.6)
• Tampopo (1985, ★ 7.8)
• Inception (2010, ★ 8.4)
• Earth (2007, ★ 7.6)
• Isle of Dogs (2018, ★ 7.8)
• Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (1997, ★ 7.6)
• Memoirs of a Geisha (2005, ★ 7.6)
• Kokuho (2025, ★ 7.9)
• Ikebukuro West Gate Park (2000, ★ 7.5)
• Segodon (2018, ★ 8.3)
• Kensuke's Kingdom (2024, ★ 7.2)
• Tokyo Vice (2022, ★ 7.8)
• Alice in Borderland (2020, ★ 8.1)
• Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009, ★ 5.8)
• Shanghai (2010, ★ 6.1)
• T.R.Y. (2003, ★ 7)
• The Creator (2023, ★ 7)
• Unforgiven (2013, ★ 7)
• Godzilla (2014, ★ 6.4)
• Memories of Tomorrow (2006, ★ 6)
• The Unbroken (2009, ★ 6.7)
• The Sea and Poison (1986, ★ 6.9)
• Space Travelers (2000, ★ 5.9)
• Year One in the North (2005, ★ 5.2)