Ken Watanabe

Born Oct 21, 1959 in Hirokami, Niigata, Japan

Kensaku Watanabe had his big career breakthrough 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, making him a household name in Japan. In 1989, he collapsed while filming a movie in Canada due to leukemia, made a miraculous comeback & co-starred with Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai (2003), which pushed him to the center stage of Hollywood. He appeared as Hiroto Katagiri in the ten-part HBO series Tokyo Vice