• Name: Ken Watanabe
• Date of Birth: October 21, 1959
• Place of Birth: Koide (now Uonuma), Niigata prefecture

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Biography: In 1982, he made his first TV appearance in Michinaru Hanran (Unknown Rebellion), and his first appearance on TV as a samurai in Mibu no koiuta. He made his feature-film debut in 1984 with MacArthur's...( read more ) Children.

Watanabe is mostly known in Japan for playing samurai, as in the 1987 Dokuganryu Masamune (One eyed dragon, Masamune) the 50-episode NHK drama for which he is now best known. He played the lead character, Matsudaira Kur?, in the television jidaigeki Gokenin Zankur?, which ran for several seasons. The American-produced The Last Samurai is his fourth such depiction, although he has also played gangsters, businessmen and a general in other works. He has gone on to earn acclaim in such historical dramas as Oda Nobunaga, Chushingura, and the movie Bakumatsu Junjo Den.

In 1989, while filming Haruki Kadokawa's Ten to Chi to (Heaven and Earth) in Calgary, Watanabe was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. He returned to acting while simultaneously undergoing chemotherapy treatments, but in 1994 suffered a relapse.

As his health improved his career picked back up. He co-starred with Koji Yakusho in the 1998 Kizuna, for which he won a Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Watanabe had ignored his finances, leaving them entirely to his wife. In 2001 he announced at a press conference that his ¥170million home had been repossessed and that he was heavily in debt.

In 2002, he quit the En (Enegki-Shudan En) theater group where he had his start and joined the K-Dash agency. The film Sennen no Koi (Thousand-year Love, based on The Tale of Genji) won Watanabe another Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

For his performance as Katsumoto in The Last Samurai, he was nominated for the 2003 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

In 2004, he was featured in People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" edition.

Watanabe played the part of the Ra's al Ghul in the 2005 film Batman Begins and The Chairman in the film version of the best selling Arthur Golden novel, Memoirs of a Geisha.

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  THaNiE

  i LoVe HiM VeRy MuCH...
  
  He's THe oNe...!!!!

  posted 191 days ago
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  mishkamiati

  Ken, I Love You! if you weren't already married, I'd Marry You in a Heartbeat! without a second thought. I Love You Ken! of all asian actors, Your My Favorite!!!!
  I don't care that your 11 years older than me. I Love You Anyway. :) Will You Marry Me? Kiss :* Kiss :X

  posted 286 days ago
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  jeffidiyah

  Uh, I might be wrong, but I don't think he was in Pathfinder. He doesn't exactly look Native American OR Scandinavian to me.

  posted 360 days ago
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  tom568

  Watanabe is the ideal Japanese man.

  posted 367 days ago
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  tom568

  The ideal of Bushido

  posted 371 days ago
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  lobsangruit

  he is really cool man and smart i really like him.
  
  

  posted 380 days ago
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  SuperVision

  He's a great actor of nowadays. You'll see him again soon with even better movies, I promise.

  posted 400 days ago
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  samAYEam

  your beautiful, its impossible not to fall in love with you , especially in memoirs

  posted 404 days ago
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  ebsnucks

  This guyZ is sooooo sexy in a different way! He might be old but I'll still have him for the night..... lol!

  posted 423 days ago
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  R0ckPINK

  i love this guy! so sexy in his own way!!!! and is an awesome actor too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  posted 433 days ago

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• Letters from Iwo Jima (R, 2007)
• Memories of Tomorrow (Ashita no kioku) (Unrated, 2006)
• Memoirs of a Geisha (PG-13, 2005)
• The Last Samurai (2003) (R, 2003)
• Welcome Back Mr. McDonald (Unrated, 1997)
• Tampopo (Unrated, 1986)
• Setouchi shonen yakyu dan (MacArthur's Children) (PG, 1984)
• The Shinjuku Incident (Unrated, )

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  Ken Watanabe Joins John Cusack in "Shanghai"

  Posted by SexiVixxEN 173 days ago.
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  Ken Watanabe Joins Salma Hayek in "Cirque du Freak"

  Posted by SexiVixxEN 186 days ago.

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  Samurai Ken Watanabe

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  Ken Watanabe!!!!

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