Ken Watanabe announced his Hepatitis C status two years after outshining Tom Cruise as the better actor in The Last Samurai resulting in an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 2004 Academy Awards. The announcement was made in his autobiography “Dare? - Who Am I?” where he revealed that after he was diagnosed with Leukemia in 1989 he contracted Hepatitis C from contaminated blood during treatment. He also admitted to undergoing treatment for Hepatitis C itself in 2005.
The latest reports indicate that Watanabe is living a happy, healthy, and successful life with a fresh lineup of new films due out in coming years. He was even seen drinking Johnny Walker whisky in his 2006 film Letters From Iwo Jima despite the fact that people with Hepatitis C are more often than not told by their doctor not to do so.
Ken Watanabe is widely considered to be the most famous Japanese actor of all time. In addition to his role as Katsumoto Moritsu in The Last Samurai. He can also be found in other good movies as the decoy of Batman’s nemesis Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins and General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters From Iwo Jima.
This profile has been updated to include a scene from The Last Samurai of Watanabe's character talking to Tom Cruise and the source has changed.