Actor
Ken Watanabe
Born 1959 · Uonuma, Niigata, Japan
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.
Acting
Inception
Saito · 2010
Batman Begins
Ra's al Ghul · 2005
The Last Samurai
Moritsugu Katsumoto · 2003
Isle of Dogs
Head Surgeon (voice) · 2018
Alice in Borderland
Old Gentleman · 2020
Memoirs of a Geisha
Le président · 2005
Pokémon Detective Pikachu
Lieutenant Hide Yoshida · 2019
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Dr. Ishiro Serizawa · 2019
Godzilla
Dr. Ishiro Serizawa · 2014
The Creator
Harun · 2023
Letters from Iwo Jima
General Tadamichi Kuribayashi · 2006
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Drift (voice) · 2014
Transformers: The Last Knight
Drift (voice) · 2017
Tampopo
Gun · 1985
Tokyo Vice
Hiroto Katagiri · 2022
Earth
Narrator (voice) · 2007
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
Mr. Tall · 2009
The Sea of Trees
Takumi Nakamura · 2016
Kokuho
Hanjiro Hanai · 2025
Fukushima 50
Masao Yoshida · 2020
Shanghai
Tanaka · 2010
Ashes and Snow
Japanese Narrator (voice) · 2005
Unforgiven
Jubee Kamata · 2013
Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald
Raita Onuki · 1997