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.

Filmography

• Kyotojin no Hisokana Tanoshimi Rouge: Keisho — 東雲朔太郎
• 2026Samurai Vengeance — Kinji Shinoda
• 2025Kokuho — Hanjiro Hanai
• 2025LA PANTHÈRE DE CARTIER
• TRUE COLORS — Taichirou Tsujimura
• 2025The Final Piece — Shigeyoshi Toumyo
• Unbound — Tamema Okitsugu
• 2024All Lives
• 2024Kensuke's Kingdom — Kensuke (voice)
• 2023The Creator — Harun
• Tokyo Vice — Hiroto Katagiri, Executive Producer
• Alice in Borderland — Old Gentleman
• 2020Fukushima 50 — Masao Yoshida
• Toubousha
• 2020劇場の灯を消すな！PARCO劇場編
• 2019An Artist of the Floating World — Ono Masuji
• 2019Godzilla: King of the Monsters — Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
• 2019Pokémon Detective Pikachu — Lieutenant Hide Yoshida
• 20187 Guardians of the Tomb — Father
• 2018Bel Canto — Katsumi Hosokawa
• 2018Isle of Dogs — Head Surgeon (voice)
• Segodon — Shimazu Nariakira
• 2018The King and I — The King of Siam
• 2017Dirty, Clean, & Inbetween — Restaurant Patron
• 2017The Memories of Happiness — Taro Miura
• 2017Transformers: The Last Knight — Drift (voice)
• 2016Rage — Yohei Maki
• 2016The Sea of Trees — Takumi Nakamura
• 五年目のひとり — 키자키 슈지
• The Secret Lives of Kyoto Folk — 東雲朔太郎
• Back of Father — Takamura Kouji
• 2014Godzilla — Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
• 2014Snow Jack — Reiji Kurata
• 2014Transformers: Age of Extinction — Drift (voice)
• 2013Unforgiven — Jubee Kamata
• 2012Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home — Junichiro Kawaguchi, Production Manager
• 2011Ai inochi - Shinjuku Kabukicho Kakekomi Dera -
• Gyoretsuno dekiru sodanjo — Regular
• 2010A School Behind Bars
• 2010Inception — Saito
• 2010Shanghai — Tanaka
• 2009Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant — Mr. Tall
• 2009The Unbroken — Hajime Onchi
• 刑事一代 平塚八兵衛の昭和事件史
• 2007Earth — Narrator (voice)
• 2007星ひとつの夜 — Nonoyama Hiroji
• 2006Letters from Iwo Jima — General Tadamichi Kuribayashi
• 2006Memories of Tomorrow — Masayuki Saeki, Executive Producer
• 2005Ashes and Snow — Japanese Narrator (voice)
• 2005Batman Begins — Ra's al Ghul
• 2005Memoirs of a Geisha — Chairman
• 2005Year One in the North — Komatsubara Hideaki
• Vessel of Sand — Shuichiro Imanishi
• 2003Another Battle/Conspiracy — Fujimaki Hiroaki
• 2003T.R.Y. — Masanobu Azuma
• 2003The Last Samurai — Moritsugu Katsumoto
• 川、いつか海へ 6つの愛の物語
• 2003第三の時効
• 藤田宜永サスペンス「異端の夏」
• 2002Dawn of a New Day: The Man Behind VHS — Okubo
• Mibu Gishiden: Shinsengumi de Ichiban Tsuyokatta Otoko
• 強行犯捜査第七係
• 横山秀夫サスペンス シリーズ (TBS)
• 2001Drowning Fish — Miyota
• Hojo Tokimune — Hojo Tokiyori
• 2001Love of a Thousand Years - Story of Genji
• 2001Proof of the Man 2001 — Munesue Koichiro
• Ikebukuro West Gate Park — Yokoyama
• 2000Space Travelers — Sakamaki ("Crusher")
• 2000The Whispered City — Ishida
• 1998Bonds — Detective Sako Akio
• Shimei Tehai
• 1997Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald — Raita Onuki
• Gokenin Zankuro — Zankuro Matsudaira
• 1993Baian the Assassin: Showdown — Dr. Baian
• 1993Hanzo, the Razor
• Kagi-shi
• The Fire Still Burns — Fujiwara Tsunekiyo
• 1992Chronicle of the Town Magistrate — Mochizuki Koheita
• 1992Ganryujima: Kojiro and Musashi — Kojirō
• Izakaya Chōji
• 1992Oda Nobunaga
• Waga Machi
• 1991A Naive History of the Bakumatsu Era — Ryoma Sakamoto
• Baian the Assassin — Fujieda Baian
• 1991Takeda Shingen — Narrator
• 1990Baian the Assassin — Dr. Baian
• Musuko no Gokikan
• Yonimo Kimyou na Monogatari Tokubetsuhen
• 1989Harimao — Producer
• Oda Nobunaga
• 1987Commando Invasion
• Masamune Shogun — 伊達政宗
• Hanekonma — Genzo Onodera
• 1986The Sea and Poison — Toda
• 1985Kekkon Annai Mystery
• 1985Tampopo — Gun
• A Tale of Two Truncheons
• 1984MacArthur's Children — Tetsuo Nakai

Appearances as themselves (6)

• 2026Yamazaki Riverside - Over an Actor's Shoulder - — Self
• 2023True Love: Making The Creator — Self
• NHK WORLD PRIME — Self - Presenter
• 2014Evolution Within Extinction — Self
• 2007Red Sun, Black Sand: The Making of 'Letters from Iwo Jima' — Self
• 1986The Making of "Tampopo" — Self