Ken Watanabe Biography

MARITAL STATUS
Professions Actor , Executive Producer , Executive Producer
Birth name Kensaku Watanabe
Nationality Japanese
Birth October 21, 1959 (Niigata – Japan)

BIOGRAPHY
Ken Watanabe only became interested in acting at the age of 24 when the director of the British National Theater Company recommended that he try his hand at comedy. The actor then began with the Madoka troupe, based in Tokyo, where he appeared under the direction of Yuko Nigawara in the lead role of Shimodani Mannen-cho Monogatari .

In 1982, he made his first television appearance in Unknown Rebellion , and established himself five years later in the historical saga Dokugan ryu Masamune . Widely recognized for his work on the small screen, Ken Watanabe took his first steps in the cinema in Setouchi shonen yakyu dan by Masahiro Shinoda in 1984. However, he had to wait until 1991 to land his first important role, in Bakumatsu jyunjyoden by Mitsuyuki Yakushiji .

Best known in Japan for playing samurai, Ken Watanabe moved away from the sets in 1989, when he contracted leukemia while filming in Canada. In 2003, the actor made a miraculous comeback by playing opposite Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai by Edward Zwick . His role as the warrior Katsumoto, which revealed him on the international scene, earned him a nomination for the Oscar, the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Role.

In 2005, Ken Watanabe continued his Hollywood career by playing the role of Ra’s Al Ghul in Batman Begins by Christopher Nolan then by playing the opposite number for the trio Ziyi Zhang / Gong Li / Michelle Yeoh in Memoirs of a Geisha , directed by Rob Marshall and produced, among others, by Steven Spielberg . It was then Clint Eastwood who offered him the role of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima .

After playing a supporting role in The Vampire’s Assistant directed by Paul Weitz ( For a Boy ), Ken Watanabe teams up again with Christopher Nolan on Inception , in which he stars alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard .