Ken Watanabe mini-bio: Ken Watanabe is a popular Japanese actor, who first gained the attention of western audiences in
The Last Samurai, starring alongside Tom Cruise. He is known in the West for playing tragic heroes and in Japan for playing Samurais.
He first came to attention in Japan after joining the Japanese theater group En and starring as a hero in the play,
Shimodani Mannencho Monogatari. This led to television appearances in 1982 and eventually his feature film debut in 1984, in
MacArthur's Children, a film about the American occupation of Japan. He is most known in Japan for playing Matsudaira Kur? in
Dokuganryu Masamune, a television drama that ran for several seasons and was about a samurai. This also led him to roles in other popular historical dramas.
He was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in 1989 while filming
Heaven and Earth, although he continued to work while receiving treatment he suffered a relapse in 1994, which slightly stalled his career.
After his recovery his career continued to flourish and he was nominated for a Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in 1998s
Kizuna.
The new millennium saw him quit En and join K-dash, another prominent Japanese theater group. The film
Thousand Year Love also earned him another Japanese Academy Award nomination in 2002. He finally won the award in 2006, with his nomination for the film
Memories of Tomorrow.
He has also seen success in the West, receiving an Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in
The Last Samurai. He also appeared in
Batman Begins and
Memoirs of a Geisha. In 2006 he appeared in
Letters from Iwo Jima, a companion piece to
Flags of Our Fathers from the Japanese perspective. More recently he appeared in
Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant and well received psychological thriller
Inception.
He is married to Kaho Minami, a Japanese actress of Korean decent. He also has two children with his ex-wife Yumiko Watanabe
