Ken Watanabe

Ken Watanabe was born in 1959, October 21, in Niigata Prefecture (Japan) in a family of teachers. My father was a calligraphy teacher. By the way, Watanabe masters this skill. My mother was in general education. The future actor spent his childhood exploring the surrounding mountains and skiing with his older brother. For a while he was fond of playing the trumpet, but could not succeed in this occupation. However, it was then that his desire to speak was manifested. In 1978, Watanabe moved to Tokyo more

Ken Watanabe was born in 1959, October 21, in Niigata Prefecture (Japan) in a family of teachers. My father was a calligraphy teacher. By the way, Watanabe masters this skill. My mother was in general education. The future actor spent his childhood exploring the surrounding mountains and skiing with his older brother. For a while he was fond of playing the trumpet, but could not succeed in this occupation. However, it was then that his desire to speak was manifested.

In 1978, Watanabe moved to Tokyo to become an actor. In 1982, he became a member of the En Theatre Company and made his debut in Shitaya Mannen-cho Monogatari, receiving only positive reviews of his performance. This was followed by filming in the film The Unknown Rebellion, as well as the first role of a samurai in the television drama Mibu no koiuta. After some time, he switched to cinema and in 1984 received a small role in the film “Children of MacArthur”.
Watanabe felt all the power of fame after participating in the television series One-Eyed Dragon, which was a very popular samurai drama in the late eighties. Already in 1987, the Japanese Society of Film Producers awarded him the award in the nomination “Best New Actor”. Unfortunately, in 1990, when he was working on Heaven and Earth, the actor discovered that he had leukemia. He failed to finish the film, and many producers were wary of working with him. After five years of treatment, the cancer woke up again. Despite this, after a course of treatment, he returned to cinema with triumph, as he received three awards from the Japanese Academy.

His first American film was a film. "The Last Samurai" where he played with Tom Cruise . Thanks to this picture, Watanabe was nominated for an Oscar. This was followed by roles in such films as “League of Shadows”, “Batman: The Beginning” and Memoirs of Geisha . In addition, he was able to strengthen his reputation as a really good actor, starring in the 2007 film Pathfinder.