Both of Ken Watanabe'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, where he was studying, told him that acting was his special gift. Ken is mostly known in Japan for playing samurais. He incorporates the samurai's values in his daily life by not amassing too many material possessions and by living his life with honor, pride and discipline. The Last Samurai, the film that introduced him to Western audiences, 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.
Children: son, actor Shin Shinitiro (born August 1st 1984) and daughter, An Watanabe (born 1986). 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, and Sessue Hayakawa, nominated the same year for The Bridge on the River Kwai. 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. Was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 1989. Since then he had fallen ill only once in 1994, but is now a fully recovered actor.