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This article is about the actor. For the NASA scientist, see Ken Watanabe (astrophysicist).

is an Oscar-nominated Japanese theater, TV, and film actor.

Biography

Born Ken Watanabe on October 21, 1959, in Koide (now Uonuma), Niigata prefecture, Japan. His mother taught general education and his father taught calligraphy. After graduating from high school in 1978 Watanabe moved to Tokyo to begin his acting career, getting his big break with the Tokyo-based theater troupe Madoka. While with the troupe, he was cast as the hero in the play Shimodani Mannencho Monogatari, under Yukio Ninagawa's direction. The role attracted critical and popular notice.

In 1982, he made his first TV appearance in Michinaru Hanran (Unknown Rebellion), and his first appearance on TV as a samurai in Mibu no koiuta. He made his feature-film debut in 1984 with MacArthur's Children.

Watanabe is mostly known in Japan for playing samurai, as in the 1987 Dokuganryu Masamune (One eyed dragon, Masamune) the 50-episode NHK drama for which he is now best known. He played the lead character, Matsudaira Kurō, in the television jidaigeki Gokenin Zankurō, which ran for several seasons. The American-produced The Last Samurai is his fourth such depiction, although he has also played gangsters, businessmen and a general in other works. He has gone on to earn acclaim in such historical dramas as Oda Nobunaga, Chushingura, and the movie Bakumatsu Junjo Den.

In 1989, while filming Haruki Kadokawa's Ten to Chi to (Heaven and Earth) in Calgary, Watanabe was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. He returned to acting while simultaneously undergoing chemotherapy treatments, but in 1994 suffered a relapse.

As his health improved his career picked back up. He co-starred with Koji Yakusho in the 1998 Kizuna, for which he won a Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Watanabe had ignored his finances, leaving them entirely to his wife. In 2001 he announced at a press conference that his ¥170million home had been repossessed and that he was heavily in debt.

In 2002, he quit the En (Enegki-Shudan En) theater group where he had his start and joined the K-Dash agency. The film Sennen no Koi (Thousand-year Love, based on The Tale of Genji) won Watanabe another Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

For his performance as Katsumoto in The Last Samurai, he was nominated for the 2003 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 2004, he was featured in People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" edition.

Ken is divorced from his ex-wife, Yumiko, with whom he has two children: Anne Watanabe, a 19 year-old model, and Dai Watanabe (渡辺大), a 20 year-old actor. On December 3, 2005, he married actress Kaho Minami.

Ken has done commercial spots for Yakult.

Watanabe played the part of the Ra's al Ghul in the 2005 film Batman Begins and The Chairman in the film version of the best selling Arthur Golden novel, Memoirs of a Geisha.

Filmography

Stage

• 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)
• Eien part1-kanojo to kare (2000)
• Eien part2-kanojo to kare (2001)

Awards and nominations

External links

• USA Today Interview
• About.com Interview
• Watanabe Ken's JMDb Listing (in Japanese)
• Ken Watanabe profile on Hoga Central

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