Already extremely tall by Japanese standards, he gained a good amount of weight (about 20 pounds) to be an even more imposing presence for his role as Katsumoto in "The Last Samurai."
As of 2004, he became the sixth Asian actor to be nominated for an Academy Award. The first and second Asian actors were Miyoshi Umeki, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Sayonara (1957), and Sessue Hayakawa, nominated the same year for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). The third nominee was Mako for "The Sand Pebbles". The fourth nominee, and the second to win was Haing S. Ngor for "The Killing Fields (1984)". The fifth to be nominated was Pat Morita.
Ken Watanabe Detailed Biography
Born Kensaku Watanabe on October 21 in 1959, Koide , Niigata prefecture, Japan. His mother taught general education and his father taught calligraphy. After graduating from high school in 1978 Watanabe moved to Tokyo to begin his acting career, getting his big break with the Tokyo-based theater troupe Madoka . While with the troupe, he was cast as the hero in the play Shimodani Mannencho Monogatari , under Yukio Ninagawa's direction. The role attracted critical and popular notice.
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 1987 with MacArthur's Children.
Ken 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 is now best known. He played the lead character, Matsudaira Kurō, in the television jidaigeki Gokenin Zankuro, which ran for several seasons. The American-produced The Last Samurai is his fourth film; as well as a samurai, he has played a gangster, a businessmen and a general. He has and went on to earn acclaim in such historical dramas as the TV shows appeared in such historical dramas as Oda Nobunaga, Chushingura, and the movie Bakumatsu Junjo Den.
In 1989, whilst 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 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.
Ken is currently separated, pending divorce, from his wife, Yumiko, with whom he has two children, an 18 year old daughter who is working as a model and a son Hiroshi, who is 20 years old.
Ken has done commercial spots for Yakult.
Watanabe is expected to the play the part of the villain Ra's al Ghul in a 2005 film. tentitively titled Batman Begins.
