Actors - Ken Watanabe

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	Actors - Ken Watanabe

Ken Watanabe (born October 21 1959) (Japanese: 渡辺謙) is a Japanese theater, TV, and film actor.

Biography

Born Kensaku 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 Zankuro, 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.

Ken is divorced from his ex-wife, Yumiko, with whom he has two children, a 19-year-old daughter, who is working as a model, and a son , who is 20 years old. On December 3, 2005, he married actress Kaho Minami (January 20, 1964 – ).

Ken has done commercial spots for Yakult.

Watanabe played the part of the fake 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

Red Sun,Black Sand, as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (2006)
Memoirs of a Geisha
, as The Chairman (2005)
Batman Begins
, as Ra's Al Ghul (decoy) (2005)
The Last Samurai
, as Katsumoto (2003)
T.R.Y. (2003)
Space Travellers (スペーストラベラーズ, Supeisu Toraberaazu) (2000)
Rajio No Jikan (ラヂオの時間) as Truck Driver (1998)
Violent Zone, as Old Mishima (1989)
Il Ragazzo dal Kimono D'oro (1988)
Il Ragazzo dal Kimono D'oro 2 (1988)
Commando Invasion (1987)
Umi to Dokuyaku (海と毒薬) as Toda (1986)
Tampopo
(タンポポ) as Gan (1986)
9 Deaths of the Ninja, as Sensei (1985)
Kekkon Annai Mystery (結婚案内ミステリー) (1985)
MacArthur's Children (瀬戸内少年野球団, Setouchi shonen yakyu dan)as Tetsuo Nakai (1984)
Bruce's Fists of Vengeance (1984)

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Actors - Ken Watanabe

Biography

Filmography

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