Ken Watanabe

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Ken Watanabe (2007)

Ken Watanabe ( Japanese: 渡 辺 謙 Watanabe Ken ; born October 21, 1959 in Koide , Kitauonuma County (today: Uonuma ), Niigata Prefecture ) is a Japanese actor . Established in Japan as a performer in comedies, dramas and action films, he has also appeared in several Hollywood films, mostly in concise supporting roles.

Life

Watanabe after a press conference in Berlin on the occasion of the premiere of Letters from Iwo Jima in February 2007
Watanabe at the Inception premiere in July 2010

Ken Watanabe's parents are both teachers. In 1978 he went to Tokyo to begin an acting career. He first attracted attention when the well-known director Yukio Ninagawa gave Watanabe, who was still studying drama, an important role in the prestigious film adaptation of the Japanese classic Genji Monogatari .

Watanabe, who is very tall by Japanese standards , had his national breakthrough as a samurai leader in the television series Dokugan ryu Masamune . In his private life, too, he tries to realize the ideals of samurai life (no accumulation of material possessions, honorable and proud lifestyle, discipline). Watanabe presented another facet of his personality in the satirical "noodle western" Tampopo .

In 1989 Watanabe was diagnosed with leukemia , but he defeated the disease and had a sensational comeback and international breakthrough with Last Samurai in 2003 . For this film, Watanabe was nominated for both a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. This made him only the sixth Asian actor to receive an Oscar nomination.

Watanabe embodied a villain ( Ra's al Ghuls doppelganger) in Batman Begins and a noble character in The Geisha . For Clint Eastwood he played the heroically failing Japanese general Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima .

In 2006, Ken Watanabe had a huge hit in Yukihiko Tsutsumi's film Ashita no Kioku , in which he played a successful businessman whose life is dramatically changed by early signs of Alzheimer's disease . For this film he received all the major Japanese film awards.

In 2010 the film Inception was released , in which he plays a Japanese businessman alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page .

In 2014 he was in the second American remake of the Godzilla film series as the Japanese scientist Dr. See Ishiro Serizawa.

In April 2015, he made his debut on Broadway , at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center , with the production of the musical by The King and I in the male title role. The main female role was played by the American actress and singer Kelli O'Hara , as Anna Leonowens, in which she was also recognized as best actress in a musical . In 2015, Watanabe received his first Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical at the 69th Tony Awards for his performance in the role of King . He was the first Japanese actor to be nominated in this category.

Watanabe is dubbed in German by the opera singer Tōru Tanabe . Detlef Bierstedt was hired as voice actor for the film Die Geisha .

Quote

“I'm not a big star in Japan. I am an actor. I have a very normal life. I cook at home four days a week. A star doesn't do that. "

Filmography (selection)

TV Shows

  • 1984: Sanga moyu
  • 1987: Dokugan-ryū Masamune
  • 2000: Ikebukuro West Gate Park (池袋 ウ エ ス ト ゲ ー ト パ ー ク)
  • 2004: Suna no utsuwa (砂 の 器)

Movies

Awards

  • 1998: Japanese Academy Award nomination for Kizuna
  • 2001: Japanese Academy Award nomination for Sennen no koi - Hikaru Genji monogatari
  • 2002: Japanese Academy Award nomination for Hi wa mata noboru
  • 2003: Blue Ribbon Award, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award nomination, Golden Globe Award nomination, Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award nomination, Oscar nomination, Phoenix Film Critics Society Award nomination, Satellite Award nomination, Saturn Award nomination , Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Last Samurai
  • 2006: Blue Ribbon Award, Hochi Film Award, Japanese Academy Award, Kinema Jumpō Prize , Nikkan Sports Film Award for Ashita no kioku
  • 2015: Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical in The King and I .

Web links

Commons : Ken Watanabe  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Personal Quotes. In: Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Retrieved May 27, 2020 (English).


personal data
SURNAME Watanabe, Ken
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 渡 辺 謙 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese actor
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Koide , Kitauonuma County (now Uonuma ), Niigata Prefecture