Ken Watanabe

Known for: Acting
Born: October 21, 1959, Uonuma, Niigata, Japan
Movies: 71

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.

Upcoming Ken Watanabe Movies

Yamazaki Riverside - Over an Actor's Shoulder -

2026

October 28, 2026

Best-Known Movies

8.4

Inception

2010

7.7

Batman Begins

2005

6.4

Godzilla

2014

6.0

Transformers: Age of Extinction

2014

7.6

The Last Samurai

2003

6.9

Pokémon Detective Pikachu

2019

6.7

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

2019

6.1

Transformers: The Last Knight

2017

7.8

Isle of Dogs

2018

7.0

The Creator

2023

Filmography

2026	Yamazaki Riverside - Over an Actor's Shoulder -	Self
2026	Samurai Vengeance	Kinji Shinoda
2025	The Final Piece	Shigeyoshi Toumyo
2025	LA PANTHÈRE DE CARTIER
2025	Kokuho	Hanjiro Hanai
2024	All Lives
2024	Kensuke's Kingdom	Kensuke (voice)
2023	True Love: Making The Creator	Self
2023	The Creator	Harun
2020	劇場の灯を消すな！PARCO劇場編
2020	Fukushima 50	Masao Yoshida
2019	Godzilla: King of the Monsters	Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
2019	Pokémon Detective Pikachu	Lieutenant Hide Yoshida
2019	An Artist of the Floating World	Ono Masuji
2018	The King and I	The King of Siam
2018	Bel Canto	Katsumi Hosokawa
2018	Isle of Dogs	Head Surgeon (voice)
2018	7 Guardians of the Tomb	Father
2017	Transformers: The Last Knight	Drift (voice)
2017	Dirty, Clean, & Inbetween	Restaurant Patron
2017	The Memories of Happiness	Taro Miura
2016	Rage	Yohei Maki
2016	The Sea of Trees	Takumi Nakamura
2014	Evolution Within Extinction	Self
2014	Snow Jack	Reiji Kurata
2014	Transformers: Age of Extinction	Drift (voice)
2014	Godzilla	Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
2013	Unforgiven	Jubee Kamata
2012	Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home	Junichiro Kawaguchi
2011	Ai inochi - Shinjuku Kabukicho Kakekomi Dera -
2010	A School Behind Bars
2010	Inception	Saito
2010	Shanghai	Tanaka
2009	Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant	Mr. Tall
2009	The Unbroken	Hajime Onchi
2007	Earth	Narrator (voice)
2007	星ひとつの夜	Nonoyama Hiroji
2007	Red Sun, Black Sand: The Making of 'Letters from Iwo Jima'	Self
2006	Letters from Iwo Jima	General Tadamichi Kuribayashi
2006	Memories of Tomorrow	Masayuki Saeki
2005	Memoirs of a Geisha	Chairman
2005	Batman Begins	Ra's al Ghul
2005	Ashes and Snow	Japanese Narrator (voice)
2005	Year One in the North	Komatsubara Hideaki
2003	The Last Samurai	Moritsugu Katsumoto
2003	第三の時効
2003	Another Battle/Conspiracy	Fujimaki Hiroaki
2003	T.R.Y.	Masanobu Azuma
2002	Dawn of a New Day: The Man Behind VHS	Okubo
2001	Love of a Thousand Years - Story of Genji
2001	Drowning Fish	Miyota
2001	Proof of the Man 2001	Munesue Koichiro
2000	The Whispered City	Ishida
2000	Space Travelers	Sakamaki ("Crusher")
1998	Bonds	Detective Sako Akio
1997	Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald	Raita Onuki
1993	Baian the Assassin: Showdown	Dr. Baian
1993	Hanzo, the Razor
1992	Chronicle of the Town Magistrate	Mochizuki Koheita
1992	Oda Nobunaga
1992	Ganryujima: Kojiro and Musashi	Kojirō
1991	A Naive History of the Bakumatsu Era	Ryoma Sakamoto
1991	Takeda Shingen	Narrator
1990	Baian the Assassin	Dr. Baian
1987	Commando Invasion
1986	The Sea and Poison	Toda
1986	The Making of "Tampopo"	Self
1985	Tampopo	Gun
1985	Kekkon Annai Mystery
1984	MacArthur's Children	Tetsuo Nakai

Directing, Writing & Producing

1989

Harimao

Producer

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