Ken Watanabe - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography (Read)
Actors » Actors » Ken Watanabe - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography
Ken Watanabe - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography
Rating: 8,4/10 (458 votes)
Ken Watanabe - biography, date of birth, place of birth, filmography, clips, Actor, Producer.
Born October 21, 1959, Koide, Niigata, Japan is a Japanese and American producer and actor in theater, film and television.
His mother was a school teacher and his father was a calligraphy teacher. Ken is also the brother of Yuki Watanabe, an actress.
Watanabe learned to play the trumpet for some time, but due to his lack of musical talent, he did not succeed. In 1982, he chose theatrical activity for himself and without any professional education and courses joined the theater troupe "En". In the same year, he first played the main role of a samurai in the television movie "Mibu no koiuta", and in 1984 he first appeared in a feature film ("MacArthur's Children") in the same role. Since then, the role of a samurai has become the main one in the actor's film life for several years.
In Japan, Ken Watanabe became famous for his starring role as a samurai in the 1987 historical television series The One-Eyed Dragon Masamune. Also in 1987, Ken received his first film award from the Japanese Society of Film and Television Producers in the category "Best Newcomer" for his role in the film "Sea and Poison."
In 1989, Watanabe was diagnosed with acute myelocytic leukemia, due to which there was a break in filming. That year, the actor successfully overcame the disease, which, nevertheless, returned again - in 1994. Then Watanaba took another 2 years to overcome the terrible enemy.
World fame came to Watanabe in 2003, after the release of the film directed by Edward Zwick "The Last Samurai", where we can safely say that Ken outplayed Tom Cruise, although before that he was practically unknown in the States. In 2004 he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. From that moment on, Watanabe was permanently assigned the role of courageous Japanese. This was facilitated by the fact that the actor can often create a deep dramatic character within the framework of a narrow role.
2005 was an extremely fruitful year for the talented Japanese. He first starred with Christopher Nolan (in Batman Begins, as the fake Ras al Ghul). The female love drama Memoirs of a Geisha by Rob Marshall, in which he brilliantly played the dramatic role of the Chairman, the subject of unattainable interest of the main character, contributed much more to the rise in popularity of Watanabe. The film received 3 Oscars.
In 2006, the actor starred in Clint Eastwood's war drama Letters from Iwo Jima as the real-life Japanese general Kuribayashi. The poignant, controversial film about the senselessness and brutality of war won an Oscar for Best Sound and a Golden Globe in 2007. In the same year, the drama "Memories of Tomorrow" was released in Japan about a manager of a large company suffering from Alzheimer's disease. For this role, Ken Watanabe received the highest award from the Japan Film Academy.
In 2010, Christopher Nolan hired Ken to co-star, wealthy businessman Saito, in his sci-fi thriller Inception. The film received an Oscar in 4 nominations and grossed $ 825 million worldwide.
In total, Ken Watanabe has played in more than 70 films and dramas in his life, and has also participated in several projects as a producer and co-producer.
Ken Watanabe is a multiple winner of the Japanese Academy Awards, Oscar and Golden Globe nominees for Best Supporting Actor in 2004, for his role in The Last Samurai.
