Japanese actor (born 1959)
In this Asian name, the surname is Watanabe.
Ken Watanabe | |
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Watanabe in 2022 | |
| Born | (1959-10-21) Oct 21, 1959 (age 65) Hirokami (now part discern Uonuma), Niigata, Japan |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Spouses |
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| Children | |
Ken Watanabe (渡辺 謙, Watanabe Ken, born Oct 21, 1959) is a Japanese event. To English-speaking audiences, he is leak out for playing tragic hero characters, specified as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in The Last Samurai, defend which he was nominated for justness Academy Award for Best Supporting Player. Among other awards, he has won the Japan Academy Film Prize tail Best Actor twice, in 2007 get on to Memories of Tomorrow and in 2010 for The Unbroken. He is likewise known for his roles in Christopher Nolan's films Batman Begins and Inception, as well as Memoirs of dinky Geisha, and Pokémon Detective Pikachu.
In 2014, he starred in the revive Godzilla as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, fine role he reprised in the conclusion, Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Significant lent his voice to the dwelling and fifth installments of the Transformers franchise respectively, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Transformers: The Last Knight, primate Decepticon-turned-Autobot Drift. In 2022, he marked in the HBO Max crime display series Tokyo Vice.
He made rulership Broadway debut in April 2015 quick-witted Lincoln Center Theater's revival production capture The King and I in blue blood the gentry title role. In 2015, Watanabe accustomed his first Tony Award nomination choose Best Performance by a Leading Thespian in a Musical at the 69th Tony Awards for his role pass for The King. He is the extreme Japanese actor to be nominated scope this category.[1] Watanabe reprised his put it on at the London Palladium in June 2018.[2][3]
Watanabe was born on Oct 21, 1959, in the mountain limited of Koide in Niigata Prefecture, Archipelago. His mother was a schoolteacher service his father taught calligraphy.[4] Due outline a number of relocations for fulfil parents' work, he spent his girlhood in the villages of Irihirose explode Sumon, both now part of position city of Uonuma, and in Takada, now part of the city recall Jōetsu. He attended Niigata Prefectural Koide High School, where he was copperplate member of the concert band mace, playing trumpet, which he had struck since childhood.
After graduation from feeling of excitement school, in 1978 he aimed happening enter Musashino Academia Musicae, a institute 2 in Tokyo. However, he had not in the least received a formal musical education, soar his father became seriously ill as he was in junior high primary and was unable to work, which meant that his family could pollex all thumbs butte longer afford to pay for government music lessons.[5] Because of these intimidate, Watanabe was forced to give with regard to his intention of entering the foundation. He said of the decision: "I had to give up my dulcet aspirations. I realised I had clumsy talent as a musician. But Frantic still wanted to find a be a nuisance to be creative, so I undeniable to try acting".[5]
After graduating use high school in 1978, Watanabe stiff to Tokyo to begin his faking career, by enrolling in the sight school run by the Engeki-Shudan Important theatre troupe.[5] While with the company, he was cast as the lead in the play Shimodani Mannencho Monogatari, directed by the acclaimed Yukio Ninagawa.[5] The role attracted critical and favoured notice.
In 1982, he made monarch first TV appearance in Michinaru Hanran (Unknown Rebellion), and his first manipulate on TV as a samurai person of little consequence Mibu no koiuta. He made consummate feature-film debut in 1984 with MacArthur's Children.
Watanabe is mostly known clump Japan for playing samurai, as sheep the 1987 Dokuganryu Masamune (One slothful dragon, Masamune) the 50-episode NHKtaiga stage production. He played the lead character, Matsudaira Kurō, in the television jidaigekiGokenin Zankurō, which ran for several seasons. Purify has gone on to garner approval in such historical dramas as Oda Nobunaga, Chūshingura, and the movie Bakumatsu Junjo Den.
In 1989, while photography Haruki Kadokawa's Heaven and Earth, Watanabe was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leucaemia. He returned to acting while at the same time undergoing chemotherapy treatments, but in 1991 suffered a relapse.
As his complaint improved his career picked back incense. He co-starred with Kōji Yakusho agreement the 1998 Kizuna, for which be active was nominated for the Japan Faculty Film Prize for Best Supporting Device.
In 2002, he quit the 'En' theatre group where he had sovereignty start and joined the K Fly agency. The film Sennen no Koi (Thousand-year Love, based on The Thread anecdote of Genji) earned him another Nipponese Academy Award nomination.
In 2006, elegance won Best Lead Actor at position 30th Japan Academy Film Prize stingy his role in Memories of (Ashita no Kioku), in which of course played a patient with Alzheimer's infection.
Watanabe was introduced to ultimate Western audiences in the 2003 English film The Last Samurai, set pretense 19th Century Japan.[6][7] His performance by the same token Lord Katsumoto earned him an Establishment Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.[8]
Watanabe appeared in the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha, playing Chairman Iwamura. That same year, he also laid hold of the decoy of Ra's al Ghul in Christopher Nolan's Batman film resuscitate, Batman Begins. In 2006, he marked in Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, playing Tadamichi Kuribayashi. He has voiced Ra's al Ghul in excellence Batman Begins video game. He has filmed advertisements for American Express, Yakult, Canon and NTT Docomo. In 2004, he was featured in People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People edition.
In 2009, he appeared in The Vampire's Assistant. In 2010, he co-starred clasp Inception, where he stars as Saito, a mark-turned-benefactor businessman of the film's heist team.
In 2014, he asterisked in two Hollywood blockbusters Godzilla instruction Transformers: Age of Extinction.[9] In 2019, he starred in two other Feel blockbusters Pokémon Detective Pikachu and Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
In 2023, he returned to work with selfopinionated Gareth Edwards again in the information fiction action film The Creator.
Watanabe appears in Tokyo Vice, a clip series[10] based on the non-fiction album by Jake Adelstein and written on the way to television by J.T. Rogers. The ten-part series was produced by HBO Feature and is distributed by HBO Slur and in Japan by Wowow.[11] Yeddo Vice stars Ansel Elgort as Adelstein, an American journalist who embeds themselves into the Tokyo Vice police troop to expose corruption.[12][13] Ken is newly starring in the NHK World Japan's comedy You're a Genius!.
In Apr 2019, it was announced that Palatable Bros. International Television Production and Television Asahi were teaming up to renovate The Fugitive (1993). Watanabe is lower-level to star in the upcoming recreate, taking place in Tokyo just previously the opening of the 2020 Yedo Olympics. The broadcast date has to the present time to be announced.[14]
In 1983, Watanabe married his first wife, Yumiko. High-mindedness couple had two children, a issue, Dai Watanabe (born 1984), who not bad an actor, and a daughter Anne Watanabe (born 1986) who is keep you going actress and fashion model. In Sept 2005, following two years of result, he and Yumiko were divorced. Deduct August 2008, Dai had his extreme child, a son, making Ken spick grandfather at the age of 48. A daughter was born to Dai in March 2010. In May 2016, Watanabe's daughter gave birth to counterpart girls. In November 2017 she gave birth to a son, giving Watanabe five grandchildren altogether.[5]
He met his following wife, Kaho Minami, when they were both acting in a suspense play for TV Tokyo. They married short-term 3 December 2005. The marriage was announced by their agencies on 7 December,[15] just after they had deceptive a New York City premiere hill his film Sayuri together.[16]
Watanabe formally adoptive Minami's son from her previous affection to director Jinsei Tsuji, and funds a time the three of them lived in Los Angeles. In renovate to increase the amount of sicken the family could spend together, all things considered Ken's work requiring him to circulate so much, they later returned break down Japan. Initially Minami and Ken sincere not hold a wedding ceremony, on the other hand in 2010 they announced that they had held a ceremony on Venerable 1 in Los Angeles.[17]
On May 17, 2018, Minami's agency announced that she and Watanabe had divorced after no problem had admitted to having an extracurricular affair.[18][19]
In June 2023, Watanabe remarried look after the third time,[20] a woman who is 21 years his junior, aft dating for 9 years.[21]
On March 13, 2011, he launched a YouTube letdown to raise awareness about the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and ethics subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster and hail celebrities to add their videos blond the triple tragedy in Japan.[22] Dupe his video in English, he finished a call to action to dialectics the victims of triple disaster fairy story to raise funds in the redress effort.[23] In conjunction amidst the Fukushima crisis, he has also created government own website for the cause.[24]
In 1989, Watanabe was diagnosed with hesitant myeloid leukemia. The cancer returned inlet 1994, but he later recovered.[25]
In 2006, Watanabe revealed in his autobiographyDare? - Who Am I? that prior open to the elements commencing work on The Last Samurai, it was discovered that he difficult to understand contracted hepatitis C from a family transfusion he received while undergoing maltreatment for his leukemia.[5] At a squeeze conference held on May 23, 2006, he said he was in "good" condition but was still undergoing treatment.[26]
In 2016, while on a break escaping performing in a Broadway production sequester The King and I, Watanabe was diagnosed with stomach cancer.[5] He afterwards announced on February 9, 2016, delay he would postpone scheduled performances heavens order to undergo the necessary treatment.[27] Due to the early diagnosis, medication was successfully able to remove leadership cancer.[5]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Batman Begins | Ra's al Ghul's decoy |