“Each little thing in my life, I learned to treat it as more precious.”
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Ken Watanabe
Ken Watanabe is a Japanese actor. He is best 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, Watanabe has won the Japan Academy Film Prize for Best Actor twice, in 2007 for Memories of Tomorrow an…
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entertainment · Japanese actor (born 1959) · street sweeper · stage actor · film actor · television actor · actor · also Ken Watanabe, Watanabe Ken, Watanabe
Born 21 October 1959 · Q211553
34 published statements · 0 followers
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I just thought we had the opportunity to depict Japan in a way that we were never able to before. So we thought we were making something special.
85%The GuardianSource
2026· 2 entries
“I just thought we had the opportunity to depict Japan in a way that we were never able to before. So we thought we were making something special.”
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2025· 1 entry
With Watanabe citing his age as the reason
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2023· 1 entry
Returned to work with director Gareth Edwards again in the science fiction action film The Creator
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2022· 1 entry
Starred in the HBO Max crime drama series Tokyo Vice
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2019· 1 entry
Starred in two other Hollywood blockbusters Pokémon Detective Pikachu and Godzilla: King of the Monsters
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2018· 1 entry
Minami's agency announced that she and Watanabe had divorced after he had admitted to having an extramarital affair
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2016· 2 entries
That he would postpone scheduled performances in order to undergo the necessary treatment
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While on a break from performing in a Broadway production of The King and I, Watanabe was diagnosed with stomach cancer
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2015· 1 entry
Watanabe received his first Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical at the 69th Tony Awards for his role as The King
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2014· 1 entry
Starred in two Hollywood blockbusters Godzilla and Transformers: Age of Extinction
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2013· 1 entry
A café in Kesennuma as a way to contribute with the reconstruction of the area after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
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2011· 1 entry
Launched a YouTube page to raise awareness about the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster and invited celebrities to add their videos of the triple tragedy in Japan
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2010· 2 entries
Announced that they had held a ceremony on August 1 in Los Angeles
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Co-starred in Inception, where he stars as Saito, a mark-turned-benefactor businessman of the film's heist team
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2007· 2 entries
Awarded Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Actor (2007).
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For Memories of Tomorrow and in 2010 for The Unbroken
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2006· 4 entries
Said he was in "good" condition but was still undergoing treatment
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Watanabe revealed in his autobiography Dare
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Starred in Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, playing Tadamichi Kuribayashi
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Won Best Lead Actor at the 30th Japan Academy Film Prize for his role in Memories of Tomorrow (Ashita no Kioku), in which he played a patient with Alzheimer's disease
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2004· 1 entry
Was featured in People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People edition
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2002· 1 entry
Quit the 'En' theatre group where he had his start and joined the K Dash agency
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1989· 3 entries
Watanabe was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia
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While filming Haruki Kadokawa's Heaven and Earth, Watanabe was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia
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In 1989, Watanabe was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
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1987· 1 entry
Awarded Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year (1987).
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1983· 2 entries
In 1983, Watanabe married his first wife, Yumiko.
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Watanabe married his first wife, Yumiko
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1982· 1 entry
Made his first TV appearance in Michinaru Hanran (Unknown Rebellion), and his first appearance on TV as a samurai in Mibu no koiuta
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1978· 2 entries
Watanabe moved to Tokyo to begin his acting career, by enrolling in the drama school run by the Engeki-Shudan En theatre troupe
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Aimed to enter Musashino Academia Musicae, a conservatory in Tokyo
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1959· 2 entries
Born 1959-10-21.
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In the mountain village of Koide in Niigata Prefecture, Japan
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