Ken Watanabe

ActorProducerProduction Oct 21 (age 66) Uonuma, Niigata, Japan 1984–2026 (42 year career)

7.3 avg rating

Biography

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 i…

Known For

Film

Inception

Saito

Film

Batman Begins

Ra's al Ghul

Film

The Last Samurai

Moritsugu Katsumoto

Film

Isle of Dogs

Head Surgeon (voice)

Film

Memoirs of a Geisha

Chairman

Film

Pokémon Detective Pikachu

Lieutenant Hide Yoshida

Film

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Dr. Ishiro Serizawa

Film

Godzilla

Dr. Ishiro Serizawa

Filmography

Acting (100)

Movies (66)

Samurai Vengeance

as Kinji Shinoda

Kokuho

as Hanjiro Hanai

The Final Piece

as Shigeyoshi Toumyo

The Cartier Panther

All Lives

Kensuke's Kingdom

as Kensuke (voice)

The Creator

as Harun

True Love: Making The Creator

as Self

Fukushima 50

as Masao Yoshida

劇場の灯を消すな！PARCO劇場編

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

2019

as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa

6.7

Pokémon Detective Pikachu

2019

as Lieutenant Hide Yoshida

6.9

An Artist of the Floating World

2019

as Ono Masuji

Isle of Dogs

2018

as Head Surgeon (voice)

7.8

7 Guardians of the Tomb

as Father

Bel Canto

as Katsumi Hosokawa

The King and I

as The King of Siam

Transformers: The Last Knight

2017

as Drift (voice)

6.0

The Memories of Happiness

2017

as Taro Miura

Dirty, Clean, & Inbetween

2017

as Restaurant Patron

Rage

as Yohei Maki

The Sea of Trees

as Takumi Nakamura

Godzilla

as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa

6.4

Transformers: Age of Extinction

2014

as Drift (voice)

6.0

Snow Jack

2014

as Reiji Kurata

Evolution Within Extinction

as Self

Unforgiven

as Jubee Kamata

Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home

2012

as Junichiro Kawaguchi

6.0

Ai inochi - Shinjuku Kabukicho Kakekomi Dera -

Inception

as Saito

Shanghai

as Tanaka

A School Behind Bars

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

as Mr. Tall

The Unbroken

as Hajime Onchi

星ひとつの夜

as Nonoyama Hiroji

Earth

2007

as Narrator (voice)

7.6

Red Sun, Black Sand: The Making of 'Letters from Iwo Jima'

2007

as Self

Letters from Iwo Jima

2006

as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi

Memories of Tomorrow

as Masayuki Saeki

Batman Begins

as Ra's al Ghul

Memoirs of a Geisha

as Chairman

Year One in the North

2005

as Komatsubara Hideaki

5.2

The Last Samurai

2003

as Moritsugu Katsumoto

7.6

T.R.Y.

2003

as Masanobu Azuma

7.0

Another Battle/Conspiracy

2003

as Fujimaki Hiroaki

第三の時効

2003

Dawn of a New Day: The Man Behind VHS

as Okubo

Drowning Fish

as Miyota

Space Travelers

as Sakamaki ("Crusher")

The Whispered City

as Ishida

Bonds

as Detective Sako Akio

4.4

Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald

1997

as Raita Onuki

7.6

Baian the Assassin: Showdown

1993

as Dr. Baian

Hanzo, the Razor

1993

Ganryujima: Kojiro and Musashi

as Kojirō

Oda Nobunaga

Chronicle of the Town Magistrate

1992

as Mochizuki Koheita

A Naive History of the Bakumatsu Era

1991

as Ryoma Sakamoto

7.0

Takeda Shingen

1991

as Narrator

Baian the Assassin

1990

as Dr. Baian

Commando Invasion

The Sea and Poison

as Toda

The Making of "Tampopo"

1986

as Self

Tampopo

as Gun

Kekkon Annai Mystery

MacArthur's Children

as Tetsuo Nakai

Television (34)

Kyotojin no Hisokana Tanoshimi Rouge: Keisho

2026

as 東雲朔太郎

Unbound

2025

as Tamema Okitsugu

9.3

TRUE COLORS

2025

as Taichirou Tsujimura

Tokyo Vice

as Hiroto Katagiri

Alice in Borderland

as Old Gentleman

Toubousha

Segodon

as Shimazu Nariakira

NHK WORLD PRIME

as Self - Presenter

五年目のひとり

as 키자키 슈지

The Secret Lives of Kyoto Folk

as 東雲朔太郎

Back of Father

as Takamura Kouji

Gyoretsuno dekiru sodanjo

2011

as Regular

刑事一代平塚八兵衛の昭和事件史

2009

Vessel of Sand

2004

as Shuichiro Imanishi

4.0

川、いつか海へ 6つの愛の物語

2003

藤田宜永サスペンス「異端の夏」

2003

Mibu Gishiden: Shinsengumi de Ichiban Tsuyokatta Otoko

横山秀夫サスペンスシリーズ (TBS)

強行犯捜査第七係

Hojo Tokimune

as Hojo Tokiyori

Ikebukuro West Gate Park

as Yokoyama

Shimei Tehai

Gokenin Zankuro

as Zankuro Matsudaira

8.0

The Fire Still Burns

1993

as Fujiwara Tsunekiyo

Kagi-shi

Waga Machi

Izakaya Chōji

Baian the Assassin

as Fujieda Baian

Yonimo Kimyou na Monogatari Tokubetsuhen

Musuko no Gokikan

Oda Nobunaga

Masamune Shogun

as 伊達政宗

Hanekonma

as Genzo Onodera

A Tale of Two Truncheons

1984

Crew (3)

Movies (2)

Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home

Production Manager

Harimao

Producer

Television (1)

Tokyo Vice

2022

Executive Producer

7.8