Ken Watanabe

Watanabe was born on October 21, 1959, in the mountain village of Koide in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. His mother was a school teacher and his father taught calligraphy. Due to a number of relocations for his parents' work, he spent his childhood in the villages of Irihirose and Sumon, both now part of the city of Uonuma, and in Takada, now part of the city of Jōetsu. He attended Niigata Prefectural Koide High School, where he was a member of the concert band club, playing trumpet, which he had played since childhood. After graduation from high school, in 1978 he aimed to enter Musashino Academia Musicae, a conservatory in Tokyo. However, he had never received a formal musical education, and his father became seriously ill when he was in junior high school and was unable to work, which meant that his family could no longer afford to pay for his music lessons. Because of these problems, Watanabe was forced to give up his intention of entering the conservatory. He said of the decision: "I had to give up my musical aspirations. I realised I had no talent as a musician. But I still wanted to find a way to be creative, so I decided to try acting". ==Career==

Japanese roles After graduating from high school in 1978, Watanabe moved to Tokyo to begin his acting career, by enrolling in the drama school run by the Engeki-Shudan En theatre troupe. His performance as Lord Katsumoto earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Watanabe appeared in the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha, playing Chairman Iwamura. That same year, he also played the decoy of Ra's al Ghul in Christopher Nolan's Batman film reboot, Batman Begins. In 2006, he starred in Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, playing Tadamichi Kuribayashi. He has voiced Ra's al Ghul in the Batman Begins video game. He has filmed advertisements for American Express, Yakult, Canon and NTT Docomo. In 2004, he was featured in People Magazines 50 Most Beautiful People edition. In 2009, he appeared in ''The Vampire's Assistant. In 2010, he co-starred in Inception'', where he stars as Saito, a mark-turned-benefactor businessman of the film's heist team. In 2014, he starred in two Hollywood blockbusters Godzilla and Transformers: Age of Extinction. In 2019, he starred in two other Hollywood blockbusters Pokémon Detective Pikachu and Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In 2023, he returned to work with director Gareth Edwards again in the science fiction action film The Creator. Television Watanabe appears in Tokyo Vice, a television series based on the non-fiction book by Jake Adelstein and written for television by J.T. Rogers. The 18-part series was produced by HBO Max and is distributed by HBO Max and in Japan by Wowow. Tokyo Vice stars Ansel Elgort as Adelstein, an American journalist who embeds himself into the Tokyo Vice police squad to expose corruption. Watanabe is currently starring in the NHK World Japan's comedy ''You're a Genius!''. In April 2019, it was announced that Warner Bros. International Television Production and TV Asahi were teaming up to remake The Fugitive (1993). Watanabe starred in the remake, taking place in Tokyo just before the opening of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The 2–part special, called Tobosha, aired as part of the 60th anniversary celebration of the station, on December 5 and 6, 2020. Streaming Watanabe, event Ambassador, together with Kazunari Ninomiya, special supporter, was chosen for the Netflix coverage of the 2026 World Baseball Classic set to start on March 5, 2026. The pair, in addition to the commentaries on the event, on January 30 released a video on the official Netflix YouTube, and will appear in the documentary "Diamond Truth: The truth about the World Baseball Classic", to be released as a 4-parter, with the first two episodes streaming on February 19, and the remaining on February 27. ==Personal life==

In 1983, Watanabe married his first wife, Yumiko. The couple had two children, a son, Dai Watanabe (born 1984), who is an actor, and a daughter Anne Watanabe (born 1986) who is an actress and fashion model. In September 2005, following two years of arbitration, he and Yumiko were divorced. In August 2008, Dai had his first child, a son, making Ken a grandfather at the age of 48. A daughter was born to Dai in March 2010. In May 2016, Watanabe's daughter gave birth to twin girls. In November 2017 she gave birth to a son, giving Watanabe five grandchildren altogether. just after they had attended a New York City premiere of his film Sayuri together. '' in July 2010 Watanabe formally adopted Minami's son from her previous marriage to director Jinsei Tsuji, and for a time the three of them lived in Los Angeles. In order to increase the amount of time the family could spend together, considering Ken's work requiring him to travel so much, they later returned to Japan. Initially Minami and Ken did not hold a wedding ceremony, but in 2010 they announced that they had held a ceremony on August 1 in Los Angeles. On May 17, 2018, Minami's agency announced that she and Watanabe had divorced after he had admitted to having an extramarital affair. In June 2023, Watanabe married for the third time, reportedly to a woman who is 21 years his junior, after dating for over 9 years. Philanthropy On March 13, 2011, he launched a YouTube page to raise awareness about the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster and invited celebrities to add their videos of the triple tragedy in Japan. In his video in English, he made a call to action to support the victims of triple disaster and to raise funds in the relief effort. In conjunction amidst the Fukushima crisis, he has also created his own website for the cause. Health In 1989, Watanabe was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. The cancer returned in 1994, but he later recovered. In 2006, Watanabe revealed in his autobiography Dare? - Who Am I? that prior to commencing work on The Last Samurai, it was discovered that he had contracted hepatitis C from a blood transfusion he received while undergoing treatment for his leukemia. In 2016, while on a break from performing in a Broadway production of The King and I, Watanabe was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Due to the early diagnosis, surgery was successfully able to remove the cancer. ==Acting credits ==

Films Television Video games Stage • Britannicus henso(1980) • Britannicus henso (1980) • Shitaya mannencho monogatari (1981) • Fuyu no raion (The Lion in Winter) (1981) • Pajaze (1981) • Platonof (1982) • Kafun netsu (1982) • Pizarro (1985) • Hamlet (1988) • Hamlet no gakuya -anten (2000) • Towa part1-kanojo (2000) • Towa part2-kanojo to kare (2001) • Dialogue with Horowitz (2013) • The King and I (2015) • The King and I (2016) • The King and I (2018) • The Royal Hunt of the Sun (2020) Dubbing ;Live-action ;Animation ==Awards and nominations==