Ken Watanabe was born on October 21, 1959 in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. In 1978, he came to Tokyo to pursue his career as an actor. He drew an attention of the critics when Yukio Ninagawa, a famous Japanese director, chose him for the lead role in one of his plays even though he was still an acting student. He made his first TV appearance in 1982 but his real career breakthrough came when he was chosen to play the lead in the Japanese national TV drama series called "Dokugan ryu Masamune"; he played a samurai leader hero, that made him a household name in Japan. In 1989 when he was shooting a movie in Canada, he collapsed because of Leukemia. He made a miraculous comeback and in 2003 "-The Last Samurai-" where he co-starred with Tom Cruise pushed him to a center stage of Hollywood. "The Last Samurai" is his 15th movie. He is a fanatic fan of Hanshin Tigers (Japanese professional baseball team) and Kobe Steel rugby team. He loves noodles.

Both of Ken's parents were teachers. His mother taught general education and his dad taught calligraphy. He became interested in acting at the age of 24 when a director of England's National Theatre Company told him that acting was his special gift, when he studied there. Ken is mostly known in Japan for playing Samurais. He incorporates the Samurai's values in his daily life by not amassing to many material possessions and by living his life with honor, pride and discipline. "The Last Samurai" was his fourth film released in 2003, and he has also starred in roles as a gangster, a businessmen and a general. Ken is currently separated from his wife and has two children, an 18 year old daughter who is working as a model and one son who is 20 years old.

Trivia:

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.