Sessue Hayakawa
Encyclopedia
was a Japanese
and American
Issei
(Japanese immigrant) actor who starred in American
, Japanese
, French
, German
, and British
films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian
actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors Charlie Chaplin
and Douglas Fairbanks
. He was one of the highest paid stars of his time; making $5,000 a week in 1915, and $2 million a year via his own production company during the 1920s. He starred in over 80 movies and has two films in the U.S.
National Film Registry
. His international stardom transitioned both silent films and talkies.
Of his English-language films, Hayakawa is probably best known for his role as Colonel Saito in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai
, for which he received a nomination for Academy Award Best Supporting Actor
in 1957. He also appeared in the 1950 film Three Came Home
and as the pirate leader in Disney's Swiss Family Robinson
in 1960
. In addition to his film acting career, Hayakawa was a theatre
actor, film
and theatre producer
, film director
, screenwriter
, novelist, martial artist, and an ordained Zen master
.
Town, of Minamibosō
City, in Chiba Prefecture
, Japan
on June 10, 1889, the second eldest son of the provincial governor.
From early on Hayakawa was groomed for a career as a naval officer. However at the age of 17, he took a schoolmate's dare to swim to the bottom of a lagoon (he grew up in a shellfish diving community) and ruptured his eardrum. He had been studying at the Naval Academy in Etajima
but his record of perfect health was now shattered and he failed the navy's rigorous physical. His formerly proud father was now ashamed and embarrassed of his son. Their relationship became strained.
The strained relationship drove the young Hayakawa to attempt seppuku
(ritual suicide). One quiet night after dinner Hayakawa entered a garden shed on his parents' property, locked his favorite dog outside and spread a white sheet on the ground. To uphold his family's samurai
tradition, Hayakawa stabbed himself in the abdomen more than 30 times. The dog's barking alerted Hayakawa's family and his father smashed through the shed door with an axe in time to save his son.
After he recovered from the suicide attempt Hayakawa enrolled in the University of Chicago
to study political economics. His family had decided that if he could not be a naval officer, he would become a banker. He resided in the United States from 1911 until 1923 and again from 1925 until 1931.
and waited for a transpacific steamship to arrive. During the interim, he wandered into the Japanese Theatre in Little Tokyo. He soon was fascinated with acting and performing plays. It was around this time he first assumed the name Sessue Hayakawa.
One of the productions Hayakawa performed in was called The Typhoon. Film producer Thomas Ince
saw the production and offered to turn it into a silent movie
using the original cast. Anxious to return to his studies at the University of Chicago
, Hayakawa decided to try to dissuade Ince by requesting the absurdly high fee of $500 a week. Ince agreed to pay it.
The Typhoon was filmed in 1914, and was an instant hit. Hayakawa made two more films with Ince, The Wrath of the Gods co-starring his new wife, Issei
actress Tsuru Aoki
, and The Sacrifice. With his rising stardom Hayakawa soon was offered a contract by Jesse L. Lasky
. He signed on making him part of Famous Players-Lasky
(now Paramount Pictures
).
. The Cheat co-starring Fannie Ward
, was a huge success, making Hayakawa a romantic idol to the female movie-going public. With his popularity Hayakawa's salary soared to over $5,000 a week in 1915. In 1917 he built his residence, a castle styled mansion, on the corner of Franklin Avenue
and Argyle Street
in Hollywood, which became a landmark until being torn down in 1956.
Following the success of The Cheat Hayakawa became a top leading man
for romantic dramas in the 1910s and early 1920s. After these roles he switched to Westerns and Action films.
After years of extensive typecasting
at Famous Players, Hayakawa decided to form his own production company. He borrowed $1 million from a former classmate at the University of Chicago and formed Haworth Pictures Corporation in 1918. Over the next three years he produced 23 films and netted $2 million a year. Hayakawa controlled the content. He produced
, starred in, directed, and contributed to the design, writing, and editing of the films. His films influenced the way the American public viewed Asians.
In 1918 Hayakawa personally chose the highly popular American serial actress Marin Sais
to appear opposite him in a series of films, the first being the 1918 racial drama The City of Dim Faces followed by His Birthright, which also starred his wife. Hayakawa's collaboration with Sais ended with the 1919 film Bonds of Honor. He also appeared opposite Jane Novak
in The Temple of Dusk, a Mutual Film Corporation production.
In 1919 Hayakawa made what is generally considered one of his best films, The Dragon Painter
, appearing opposite his wife, actress Tsuru Aoki
. During this period Hayakawa was at his Hollywood peak. He was one of the highest paid stars of the era, making $2 million a year through his production company throughout the 1920s. His fame rivaled that of Douglas Fairbanks
, Charlie Chaplin
, and William S. Hart
, and in many ways, he was a precursor to Rudolph Valentino
.
Hayakawa's wealth and extravagance was legendary. He drove a gold plated Pierce-Arrow
. He entertained lavishly in his 'Castle' which was known as the scene of some of Hollywood's wildest parties. Shortly before Prohibition
took effect in 1920, he bought a carload of booze. Hayakawa once claimed that he owed his social success to his liquor supply. During this time, in the course of one night he gambled away $1 million in Monte Carlo
, shrugging off the loss while another Japanese gambler who lost a fortune committed suicide.
, France
, England
and Japan. In 1924 he made The Great Prince Chan and The Story of Su in London.
In 1925 he wrote a novel, The Bandit Prince, and turned it into a short play. In 1930 he performed in Samurai, a one-act play written especially for him, for Great Britain's King George V
and Queen Mary
. He also became very popular in France thanks to the prevailing French fascination with anything Asian. In 1930 Hayakawa returned to Japan and produced
a Japanese-language stage version of The Three Musketeers
.
. Hollywood deemed his gifts unsuitable for the new talkies. Hayakawa's sound film debut came in 1931 in Daughter of the Dragon
, starring opposite fellow Asian
performer Anna May Wong
.
In 1937 Hayakawa went to France to act in Yoshiwara and found himself trapped by the German occupation. He was separated from his family during this time.
Hayakawa made few movies during these years, but supported himself by selling watercolors. He joined the French Resistance
and helped Allied flyers during the war. In 1949, Humphrey Bogart
's production company tracked Hayakawa down and offered him a role in Tokyo Joe
. Before issuing a work permit
, the American Consulate investigated Hayakawa's activities during the war. They found that he had in no way contributed to the German war effort. Hayakawa followed Tokyo Joe with Three Came Home
, in which he played real-life POW camp commander Lieutenant-Colonel Suga
, before returning to France.
His post-war screen persona became fixed as the honorable villain, perhaps best exemplified in his role as Colonel Saito in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai
, which won the 1957 Academy Award for Best Picture
. Hayakawa was nominated for Best Supporting Actor
but lost to Red Buttons. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe for the role. He called this role the highlight of his career.
After that film Hayakawa in essence retired from acting. Throughout the rest of his life he performed on a handful of television shows and a few movies. His final film appearance was in The Daydreamer in 1966.
In 1961 he became a Zen master
as well as a private acting coach. He wrote an autobiography, Zen Showed Me the Way. He appeared on the NBC
interview program Here's Hollywood
.
being the other.
that existed at the time, Hayakawa would be unable to become a citizen or marry someone of another race. In 1930, the Production Code
came into effect which forbade portrayals of miscegenation in film. This meant that unless Hayakawa played opposite an authentic Asian actress, he would not be able to portray a romance with her.
Throughout his career, the United States dealt with yellow peril
which affected Americans perceptions of Asians. This left Hayakawa to constantly be typecast
as a villain or forbidden lover and unable to play parts that would be given to fellow white actors such as Douglas Fairbanks
.
Hayakawa can be seen as a precursor to Rudolph Valentino
. Both were foreign born, both were typecast as exotic or forbidden lovers, and both were wildly popular during their time. Hayakawa also inadvertently helped Rudolph Valentino
's rise to stardom. His contract with Famous Players expired in May 1918, but the studio still asked him to star in The Sheik
. Hayakawa turned down the picture in favor of starting his own company, most likely not happy with another 'forbidden villain lover' role. With influence from June Mathis
, the role went to the barely known Valentino, which turned him into an icon.
Some Japanese felt his American success represented turning his back on his nation. His later films were also not popular, because he was now ironically seen as 'too Americanized
' during a time of 'Nationalism'.
This typecasting was the reason Hayakawa set up his own production company in 1918 around the height of his US fame. At that time he stated he wanted to be shown "as he really is and not as fiction paints him." As for his prior roles, he said, "They are false and give people a wrong idea of us [Asians]."
Hayakawa desperately sought to show a more balanced and fair portrait of Asians. In 1949 he stated, “My one ambition is to play a hero.” In his autobiography he observed, “All my life has been a journey. But my journey differs from the journeys of most men.”
. She would star in quite a few of his movies alongside him. She died in 1961 at which time Hayakawa moved back to Japan and became a Zen master
.
In Europe the couple adopted western children and gave them Japanese names: a boy named Yukio and two girls, Yoshiko, an actress, and Fujiko, a dancer.
Hayakawa was known for his discipline and martial arts skills. While in University he played quarterback
for the football
team. He was once penalized for using jujitsu to bring down a rival player.
While filming The Jaguar's Claws, in the Mojave Desert
, Hayakawa played a Mexican bandit, and the film required 500 cowboys as extras. On the first night of filming, the extras drank all night and well into the next day. No work was being done, so Hayakawa challenged the group to a fight. Two men stepped forward. Hayakawa said of the incident, "The first one struck out at me. I seized his arm and sent him flying on his face along the rough ground. The second attempted to grapple and I was forced to flip him over my head and let him fall on his neck. The fall knocked him unconscious." Hayakawa then disarmed yet another cowboy. The extras returned to work, amused by the way the small man manhandled the big bruising cowboys.
and a drama coach. He died in Tokyo
on November 23, 1973 from a cerebral thrombosis, complicated by pneumonia
. He was buried in the Chokeiji Temple Cemetery in Toyama
, Japan.
, Tokyo Joe, Three Came Home, and The Bridge on the River Kwai are available on DVD.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Sessue Hayakawa was awarded a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 1645 Vine Street, in Hollywood, California
.
In 1989 a musical based on his life, Sessue, played in Tokyo.
In September 2007 the Museum of Modern Art
held a retrospective on Hayakawa's work titled: "Sessue Hayakawa: East and West, When the Twain Met"
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Issei
Issei
Issei is a Japanese language term used in countries in North America, South America and Australia to specify the Japanese people first to immigrate. Their children born in the new country are referred to as Nisei , and their grandchildren are Sansei...
(Japanese immigrant) actor who starred in American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
and Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
. He was one of the highest paid stars of his time; making $5,000 a week in 1915, and $2 million a year via his own production company during the 1920s. He starred in over 80 movies and has two films in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
. His international stardom transitioned both silent films and talkies.
Of his English-language films, Hayakawa is probably best known for his role as Colonel Saito in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British World War II film by David Lean based on The Bridge over the River Kwai by French writer Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting. It stars William...
, for which he received a nomination for Academy Award Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
in 1957. He also appeared in the 1950 film Three Came Home
Three Came Home
Three Came Home is a post-war film made by Twentieth Century-Fox, based on the memoirs of the same name by writer Agnes Newton Keith. It depicts Keith's life in North Borneo in the period immediately before the Japanese invasion in 1942, and her subsequent internment and suffering, separated from...
and as the pirate leader in Disney's Swiss Family Robinson
Swiss Family Robinson (film)
Swiss Family Robinson is a 1960 American Technicolor feature film starring John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, and Sessue Hayakawa in a tale of a shipwrecked family building an island home. The screenplay by Lowell S. Hawley was loosely based upon the 1812 novel Der Schweizerische Robinson by Johann...
in 1960
1960 in film
The year 1960 in film involved some significant events, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the top-grossing release in the U.S.-Events:* April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I...
. In addition to his film acting career, Hayakawa was a theatre
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...
actor, film
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and theatre producer
Theatrical producer
A theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The independent producer will usually be the originator and finder of the script and starts the whole process...
, film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, novelist, martial artist, and an ordained Zen master
Zen master
Zen master is an umbrella title sometimes used to refer to an individual who has been recognized by an authorized Zen lineage holder and teacher as having met his or her own teacher's standards of realization or insight. These standards vary widely in different traditions, and may vary among...
.
Early life
Hayakawa was born Kintaro Hayakawa (早川金太郎, Hayakawa Kintarō) in Nanaura Village, of ChikuraChikura, Chiba
is a former town located in Awa District, Chiba, Japan. As of October 1, 2004, the town had an estimated population of 12,527 and a density of 342 persons per km². The total area was 36.64 km².-Geography:...
Town, of Minamibosō
Minamiboso, Chiba
is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010 data, the city had an estimated population of 42,035 and a population density of 183 persons per km²...
City, in Chiba Prefecture
Chiba Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region and the Greater Tokyo Area. Its capital is Chiba City.- History :Chiba Prefecture was established on June 15, 1873 with the merger of Kisarazu Prefecture and Inba Prefecture...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
on June 10, 1889, the second eldest son of the provincial governor.
From early on Hayakawa was groomed for a career as a naval officer. However at the age of 17, he took a schoolmate's dare to swim to the bottom of a lagoon (he grew up in a shellfish diving community) and ruptured his eardrum. He had been studying at the Naval Academy in Etajima
Etajima
Etajima is an island in Hiroshima Bay located in southwestern Hiroshima Prefecture.From the city of Hiroshima the island is about 7km out at sea. The island is about 6km from the city of Kure. It is connected to Kure by two bridges....
but his record of perfect health was now shattered and he failed the navy's rigorous physical. His formerly proud father was now ashamed and embarrassed of his son. Their relationship became strained.
The strained relationship drove the young Hayakawa to attempt seppuku
Seppuku
is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai bushido honor code, seppuku was either used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies , or as a form of capital punishment...
(ritual suicide). One quiet night after dinner Hayakawa entered a garden shed on his parents' property, locked his favorite dog outside and spread a white sheet on the ground. To uphold his family's samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
tradition, Hayakawa stabbed himself in the abdomen more than 30 times. The dog's barking alerted Hayakawa's family and his father smashed through the shed door with an axe in time to save his son.
After he recovered from the suicide attempt Hayakawa enrolled in the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
to study political economics. His family had decided that if he could not be a naval officer, he would become a banker. He resided in the United States from 1911 until 1923 and again from 1925 until 1931.
Career beginnings
At the end of his second year of studies at the University of Chicago, Hayakawa decided to quit and return to Japan. He went to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and waited for a transpacific steamship to arrive. During the interim, he wandered into the Japanese Theatre in Little Tokyo. He soon was fascinated with acting and performing plays. It was around this time he first assumed the name Sessue Hayakawa.
One of the productions Hayakawa performed in was called The Typhoon. Film producer Thomas Ince
Thomas H. Ince
Thomas Harper Ince was an American silent film actor, director, screenwriter and producer of more than 100 films and pioneering studio mogul. Known as the "Father of the Western", he invented many mechanisms of professional movie production, introducing early Hollywood to the "assembly line"...
saw the production and offered to turn it into a silent movie
Silent Movie
Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
using the original cast. Anxious to return to his studies at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, Hayakawa decided to try to dissuade Ince by requesting the absurdly high fee of $500 a week. Ince agreed to pay it.
The Typhoon was filmed in 1914, and was an instant hit. Hayakawa made two more films with Ince, The Wrath of the Gods co-starring his new wife, Issei
Issei
Issei is a Japanese language term used in countries in North America, South America and Australia to specify the Japanese people first to immigrate. Their children born in the new country are referred to as Nisei , and their grandchildren are Sansei...
actress Tsuru Aoki
Tsuru Aoki
was a popular Japanese-American stage and screen actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the 1910s through the 1920s. Aoki may have been the first Asian actress to garner top-billing in American motion pictures.-Life and career:...
, and The Sacrifice. With his rising stardom Hayakawa soon was offered a contract by Jesse L. Lasky
Jesse L. Lasky
Jesse Louis Lasky, Sr. was a pioneer Hollywood film producer. He was a key founder of Paramount Pictures with Adolph Zukor, and father of screenwriter Jesse L...
. He signed on making him part of Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created on July 19, 1916 from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company -- originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays -- and Jesse L...
(now Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
).
Stardom
Hayakawa's second film for Famous Players-Lasky was The Cheat, directed by Cecil B. DeMilleCecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
. The Cheat co-starring Fannie Ward
Fannie Ward
Fannie Ward was an American actress of stage and screen, known for comedic roles as well as The Cheat, a sexually–charged 1915 silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille....
, was a huge success, making Hayakawa a romantic idol to the female movie-going public. With his popularity Hayakawa's salary soared to over $5,000 a week in 1915. In 1917 he built his residence, a castle styled mansion, on the corner of Franklin Avenue
Franklin Avenue (Los Angeles)
Franklin Avenue is a street in Los Angeles. It is the northernmost street in Hollywood, north of Hollywood Boulevard and south of the Hollywood Hills, and later Los Feliz Boulevard....
and Argyle Street
Argyle Street
Argyle Street is the name of a street in many cities and towns. Notable among these are:Australia*Argyle Street, the Rocks, Sydney*Argyle Street, Hobart, Tasmania*Argyle Street, Fitzroy, MelbourneCanada*Argyll Road, Edmonton...
in Hollywood, which became a landmark until being torn down in 1956.
Following the success of The Cheat Hayakawa became a top leading man
Leading man
Leading man or leading gentleman is an informal term for the actor who plays a love interest to the leading actress in a film or play. A leading man is usually an all rounder; capable of singing, dancing, and acting at a professional level, but never outshining his female co-star...
for romantic dramas in the 1910s and early 1920s. After these roles he switched to Westerns and Action films.
Typecasting (acting)
In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...
at Famous Players, Hayakawa decided to form his own production company. He borrowed $1 million from a former classmate at the University of Chicago and formed Haworth Pictures Corporation in 1918. Over the next three years he produced 23 films and netted $2 million a year. Hayakawa controlled the content. He produced
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
, starred in, directed, and contributed to the design, writing, and editing of the films. His films influenced the way the American public viewed Asians.
In 1918 Hayakawa personally chose the highly popular American serial actress Marin Sais
Marin Sais
Marin Sais was an American motion picture actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the 1910s and 1920s...
to appear opposite him in a series of films, the first being the 1918 racial drama The City of Dim Faces followed by His Birthright, which also starred his wife. Hayakawa's collaboration with Sais ended with the 1919 film Bonds of Honor. He also appeared opposite Jane Novak
Jane Novak
-Background:Jane Novak was born in St. Louis, Missouri was born Johana B. Novak, daughter of Joseph, an immigrant from Bohemia, and Barbara Novak. Her father died when she was a child and her mother was left to raise 5 children. Novak attended convent school but ran away with a friend with whom...
in The Temple of Dusk, a Mutual Film Corporation production.
In 1919 Hayakawa made what is generally considered one of his best films, The Dragon Painter
The Dragon Painter
The Dragon Painter is a 1919 silent film. It is based on a novel, The Dragon Painter, written by Mary McNeil Fenollosa. It stars Sessue Hayakawa as a mentally disturbed young painter who believes that his fiancée, Hayakawa's wife Tsuru Aoki, is a princess who has been captured and turned into a...
, appearing opposite his wife, actress Tsuru Aoki
Tsuru Aoki
was a popular Japanese-American stage and screen actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the 1910s through the 1920s. Aoki may have been the first Asian actress to garner top-billing in American motion pictures.-Life and career:...
. During this period Hayakawa was at his Hollywood peak. He was one of the highest paid stars of the era, making $2 million a year through his production company throughout the 1920s. His fame rivaled that of Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
, Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
, and William S. Hart
William S. Hart
William Surrey Hart was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered for having "imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity."-Biography:...
, and in many ways, he was a precursor to Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
.
Hayakawa's wealth and extravagance was legendary. He drove a gold plated Pierce-Arrow
Pierce-Arrow
Pierce-Arrow was an American automobile manufacturer based in Buffalo, New York, which was active from 1901-1938. Although best known for its expensive luxury cars, Pierce-Arrow also manufactured commercial trucks, fire trucks, camp trailers, motorcycles, and bicycles.-Early history:The forerunner...
. He entertained lavishly in his 'Castle' which was known as the scene of some of Hollywood's wildest parties. Shortly before Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
took effect in 1920, he bought a carload of booze. Hayakawa once claimed that he owed his social success to his liquor supply. During this time, in the course of one night he gambled away $1 million in Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
, shrugging off the loss while another Japanese gambler who lost a fortune committed suicide.
Stardom outside the United States
A bad business deal forced Hayakawa to leave Hollywood in 1921. The next 15 years saw him performing in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Japan. In 1924 he made The Great Prince Chan and The Story of Su in London.
In 1925 he wrote a novel, The Bandit Prince, and turned it into a short play. In 1930 he performed in Samurai, a one-act play written especially for him, for Great Britain's King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
and Queen Mary
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
. He also became very popular in France thanks to the prevailing French fascination with anything Asian. In 1930 Hayakawa returned to Japan and produced
Theatrical producer
A theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The independent producer will usually be the originator and finder of the script and starts the whole process...
a Japanese-language stage version of The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, first serialized in March–July 1844. Set in the 17th century, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard...
.
Later career
In the 1930s his career began to suffer from the rise of talkies, as well as a growing Anti-Japanese sentimentAnti-Japanese sentiment
Anti-Japanese sentiment involves hatred, grievance, distrust, dehumanization, intimidation, fear, hostility, and/or general dislike of the Japanese people and Japanese diaspora as ethnic or national group, Japan, Japanese culture, and/or anything Japanese. Sometimes the terms Japanophobia and...
. Hollywood deemed his gifts unsuitable for the new talkies. Hayakawa's sound film debut came in 1931 in Daughter of the Dragon
Daughter of the Dragon
Daughter of the Dragon is a movie directed by Lloyd Corrigan, released by Paramount Pictures, and starring Anna May Wong as Princess Ling Moy, Sessue Hayakawa as Ah Kee, and Warner Oland as Dr. Fu Manchu...
, starring opposite fellow Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
performer Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star...
.
In 1937 Hayakawa went to France to act in Yoshiwara and found himself trapped by the German occupation. He was separated from his family during this time.
Hayakawa made few movies during these years, but supported himself by selling watercolors. He joined the French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
and helped Allied flyers during the war. In 1949, Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
's production company tracked Hayakawa down and offered him a role in Tokyo Joe
Tokyo Joe
Tokyo Joe is a 1949 film directed by Stuart Heisler from a story by Steve Fisher, adapted by Walter Doniger and starring Humphrey Bogart, Florence Marly and Sessue Hayakawa...
. Before issuing a work permit
Work permit
Work permit is a generic term for a legal authorization which allows a person to take employment.It is most often used in reference to instances where a person is given permission to work in a country where one does not hold citizenship, but is also used in reference to minors, who in some...
, the American Consulate investigated Hayakawa's activities during the war. They found that he had in no way contributed to the German war effort. Hayakawa followed Tokyo Joe with Three Came Home
Three Came Home
Three Came Home is a post-war film made by Twentieth Century-Fox, based on the memoirs of the same name by writer Agnes Newton Keith. It depicts Keith's life in North Borneo in the period immediately before the Japanese invasion in 1942, and her subsequent internment and suffering, separated from...
, in which he played real-life POW camp commander Lieutenant-Colonel Suga
Tatsuji Suga
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Imperial Japanese Army was the commander of all prisoner-of-war and civilian internment camps in Borneo, during World War II. Suga committed suicide five days after being taken prisoner by Australian forces in September 1945.-Early life:Suga was born in Hiroshima, the...
, before returning to France.
His post-war screen persona became fixed as the honorable villain, perhaps best exemplified in his role as Colonel Saito in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British World War II film by David Lean based on The Bridge over the River Kwai by French writer Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting. It stars William...
, which won the 1957 Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
. Hayakawa was nominated for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
but lost to Red Buttons. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe for the role. He called this role the highlight of his career.
After that film Hayakawa in essence retired from acting. Throughout the rest of his life he performed on a handful of television shows and a few movies. His final film appearance was in The Daydreamer in 1966.
Other works
Hayakawa had created his own production company in 1918. During that period he produced, directed, contributed to the design, writing, of editing his films. He wrote several plays, painted watercolors, performed martial arts, and invested wisely.In 1961 he became a Zen master
Zen master
Zen master is an umbrella title sometimes used to refer to an individual who has been recognized by an authorized Zen lineage holder and teacher as having met his or her own teacher's standards of realization or insight. These standards vary widely in different traditions, and may vary among...
as well as a private acting coach. He wrote an autobiography, Zen Showed Me the Way. He appeared on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
interview program Here's Hollywood
Here's Hollywood
Here's Hollywood is an American celebrity interview program which aired on weekday afternoons on NBC at 4:30 Eastern time from September 26, 1960, to December 28, 1962.-Overview:...
.
Acting style
During the height of his popularity critics of the day hailed Hayakawa's Zen-influenced acting style. Hayakawa sought to bring muga, or the "absence of doing," closely akin to the concept of less is more to his performances, in direct contrast to the then-popular studied poses and broad gestures. He was one of the first stars to do so, Mary PickfordMary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
being the other.
Racial barriers
Hayakawa was in a unique position due to his ethnicity and fame in the English world. Due to anti-miscegenation lawsAnti-miscegenation laws in the United States
Anti-miscegenation laws have been a part of American law since before its independence. They were ruled unconstitional by the Surpreme Court in 1967...
that existed at the time, Hayakawa would be unable to become a citizen or marry someone of another race. In 1930, the Production Code
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
came into effect which forbade portrayals of miscegenation in film. This meant that unless Hayakawa played opposite an authentic Asian actress, he would not be able to portray a romance with her.
Throughout his career, the United States dealt with yellow peril
Yellow Peril
Yellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...
which affected Americans perceptions of Asians. This left Hayakawa to constantly be typecast
Typecasting (acting)
In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...
as a villain or forbidden lover and unable to play parts that would be given to fellow white actors such as Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
.
Hayakawa can be seen as a precursor to Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
. Both were foreign born, both were typecast as exotic or forbidden lovers, and both were wildly popular during their time. Hayakawa also inadvertently helped Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
's rise to stardom. His contract with Famous Players expired in May 1918, but the studio still asked him to star in The Sheik
The Sheik (film)
The Sheik is a 1921 silent film produced by Famous Players-Lasky, directed by George Melford and starring Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, and Adolphe Menjou...
. Hayakawa turned down the picture in favor of starting his own company, most likely not happy with another 'forbidden villain lover' role. With influence from June Mathis
June Mathis
June Mathis was an American screenwriter and one of the highest paid Hollywood executives in the 1920s. Mathis was the first female executive for Metro/MGM and at only 35, she was the highest paid executive in Hollywood. In 1926 she was voted the third most influential woman in Hollywood, behind...
, the role went to the barely known Valentino, which turned him into an icon.
Reception in Japan
Hayakawa's early films were not popular in Japan most likely due to the fact that Hollywood played up his "Japaneseness" at a time that Japan was trying to become more American.Some Japanese felt his American success represented turning his back on his nation. His later films were also not popular, because he was now ironically seen as 'too Americanized
Americanization
Americanization is the influence of the United States on the popular culture, technology, business practices, or political techniques of other countries. The term has been used since at least 1907. Inside the U.S...
' during a time of 'Nationalism'.
Reception in United States
In more than 20 films for Famous Players, Hayakawa was typecast as either the villain or the exotic lover who in the end would turn his lover over to the proper man of her race.This typecasting was the reason Hayakawa set up his own production company in 1918 around the height of his US fame. At that time he stated he wanted to be shown "as he really is and not as fiction paints him." As for his prior roles, he said, "They are false and give people a wrong idea of us [Asians]."
Hayakawa desperately sought to show a more balanced and fair portrait of Asians. In 1949 he stated, “My one ambition is to play a hero.” In his autobiography he observed, “All my life has been a journey. But my journey differs from the journeys of most men.”
Personal life
On May 1, 1914 Hayakawa married fellow Japanese actress Tsuru AokiTsuru Aoki
was a popular Japanese-American stage and screen actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the 1910s through the 1920s. Aoki may have been the first Asian actress to garner top-billing in American motion pictures.-Life and career:...
. She would star in quite a few of his movies alongside him. She died in 1961 at which time Hayakawa moved back to Japan and became a Zen master
Zen master
Zen master is an umbrella title sometimes used to refer to an individual who has been recognized by an authorized Zen lineage holder and teacher as having met his or her own teacher's standards of realization or insight. These standards vary widely in different traditions, and may vary among...
.
In Europe the couple adopted western children and gave them Japanese names: a boy named Yukio and two girls, Yoshiko, an actress, and Fujiko, a dancer.
Hayakawa was known for his discipline and martial arts skills. While in University he played quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
for the football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team. He was once penalized for using jujitsu to bring down a rival player.
While filming The Jaguar's Claws, in the Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
, Hayakawa played a Mexican bandit, and the film required 500 cowboys as extras. On the first night of filming, the extras drank all night and well into the next day. No work was being done, so Hayakawa challenged the group to a fight. Two men stepped forward. Hayakawa said of the incident, "The first one struck out at me. I seized his arm and sent him flying on his face along the rough ground. The second attempted to grapple and I was forced to flip him over my head and let him fall on his neck. The fall knocked him unconscious." Hayakawa then disarmed yet another cowboy. The extras returned to work, amused by the way the small man manhandled the big bruising cowboys.
Death
Sessue Hayakawa retired from film in 1966. After his wife's death he returned to Japan where he became a Zen masterZen master
Zen master is an umbrella title sometimes used to refer to an individual who has been recognized by an authorized Zen lineage holder and teacher as having met his or her own teacher's standards of realization or insight. These standards vary widely in different traditions, and may vary among...
and a drama coach. He died in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
on November 23, 1973 from a cerebral thrombosis, complicated by pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. He was buried in the Chokeiji Temple Cemetery in Toyama
Toyama, Toyama
is the capital city of Toyama Prefecture, Japan, located on the coast of the Sea of Japan in the Chūbu region on central Honshū, about 200 km north of the city of Nagoya and 300 km northwest of Tokyo....
, Japan.
Legacy
To date Hayakawa is one of the few Asian men to obtain romantic icon status in the US. His work lives on in various forms. Many of his films are lost. However most of his later films including The Geisha BoyThe Geisha Boy
The Geisha Boy is a 1958 American comedy film starring Jerry Lewis. Filmed from June 16 to August 7, 1958, it was released on December 23, 1958 by Paramount Pictures. This film marked the film debut of Suzanne Pleshette.-Plot:...
, Tokyo Joe, Three Came Home, and The Bridge on the River Kwai are available on DVD.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Sessue Hayakawa was awarded a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 1645 Vine Street, in Hollywood, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
In 1989 a musical based on his life, Sessue, played in Tokyo.
In September 2007 the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
held a retrospective on Hayakawa's work titled: "Sessue Hayakawa: East and West, When the Twain Met"
See also
- Portrayal of East Asians in Hollywood
- Stereotypes of East and Southeast Asians in American media
Documentary films
- 2006 - The Slanted Screen: Asian Men in Film and Television. Directed by Jeff AdachiJeff AdachiJeff Adachi is the elected Public Defender of San Francisco, pension reform advocate, and a former candidate for Mayor of San Francisco.-Early life and education:...
.
Further reading
- Daisuke Miyao (2007), Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom, (ISBN 0-8223-3969-2).