Yellowface
Encyclopedia
East Asians have not always been accurately represented in Hollywood. Many times, Asian characters were portrayed predominantly by white
actors, often while artificially changing their looks with makeup in order to approximate East Asian facial characteristics.
These portrayals are considered an example of the racism in the United States
and overt racism common to the times. During the late 19th Century and early parts of the 20th, numerous anti-Asian sentiments were expressed by politicians and writers, especially on the West Coast
, with headlines like "The 'Yellow Peril'" (Los Angeles Times, 1886) and "Conference Endorses Chinese Exclusion" (The New York Times, 1905) and the later Japanese Exclusion Act. The American Immigration Act of 1924
limited the number of Asians because they were considered an "undesirable" race.
was a well known singer due to his performances in vaudeville around the 1910s.
Around the same time, Sessue Hayakawa
began appearing in films. Signed to Paramount Pictures
, he had roles in more than 20 silent films including The Wrath of the Gods (1914) and The Typhoon (1914). When Hayakawa's contract with Paramount expired in 1918, the studio still wanted him to star in an upcoming movie, but Hayakawa turned them down in favor of starting his own company. He was at the height of his popularity during that time. His career did suffer due to Anti-Japanese sentiment in the 1930s, but he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the The Bridge on the River Kwai
.
Anna May Wong
, considered by many the first Chinese-American movie star, was acting by the age of 14 and in 1922, at 17 years old, she became the first Asian to break Hollywood’s miscegenation rule playing opposite a white romantic lead in Toll of the Sea. Even though she was internationally known by 1924, her film roles were limited by stereotype and prejudice; tired of being both typecast and being passed over for lead Asian character roles in favor of non-Asian actresses, Wong left Hollywood in 1928 for Europe. Interviewed by Doris Mackie for Film Weekly in 1933, Wong complained about her Hollywood roles: "I was so tired of the parts I had to play." She commented: "There seems little for me in Hollywood, because, rather than real Chinese, producers prefer Hungarians, Mexicans, American Indians for Chinese roles." In 1935, she was considered for the leading role in The Good Earth
, which went to Caucasian actress Luise Rainer
. Wong refused the role of the villainess, the stereotypical Oriental Dragonlady.
Some Asian-American actors nonetheless attempted to start careers. Merle Oberon
, a mixed-race Anglo-Indian
, was able to get starring roles after concocting a phony story about her origins and using skin whitening make-up. Philip Ahn, after rejection for speaking English too well, braved death threats after playing Japanese villains. There were others like Barbara Jean Wong
, Fely Franquelli
, Benson Fong
, Chester Gan
, Honorable Wu, Kam Tong
, Keye Luke
, Layne Tom Jr.
, Maurice Liu, Philip Ahn, Richard Loo
, Lotus Long
, Rudy Robles
, Suzanna Kim, Teru Shimada
, Willie Fung, Victor Sen Yung
, Toshia Mori
and Wing Foo; all began their film careers in the 1930s and 40s.
With the number of Asian-American actors available, actor Robert Ito
wrote an article that described that job protection for Caucasian actors was one reason Asians were portrayed by Caucasians. "With the relatively small percentage of actors that support themselves by acting, it was only logical that they should try to limit the available talent pool as much as possible. One way of doing this was by placing restrictions on minority actors, which, in the case of Asian actors, meant that they could usually only get roles as houseboys, cooks, laundrymen, and crazed war enemies, with the rare "white hero's loyal sidekick" roles going to the big name actors. When the script called for a larger Asian role, it was almost inevitably given to a white actor."
's theatrical work The Orphan of China
was presented in Philadelphia. In this early production, the actors and the audiences had never seen an Asian. On screen, Mary Pickford
, a white Canadian, played Cio-Cio San
in Madame Butterfly
in (1915).
The Welsh-American Myrna Loy
was the "go to girl" for any portrayal of Asian characters and was typecasted
in over a dozen films, while Chinese detective Charlie Chan
, who was modeled after Chang Apana
, a real-life Chinese Hawaiian detective, was portrayed by several white actors including Warner Oland
, Sidney Toler
, and Peter Ustinov
.
The list of actors who have donned makeup to portray Asians at some point in their career includes: Lon Chaney Sr., Edward G. Robinson
, Loretta Young
, Boris Karloff
, Peter Lorre
, Anthony Quinn
, Katharine Hepburn
, Rita Moreno
, Rex Harrison
, John Wayne
, Marlon Brando
, Alec Guinness
, Tony Randall
, John Gielgud
, Max von Sydow
, Linda Hunt
, David Carradine
, Joel Grey
, and many others.
The use of yellowface makeup endured when blackface
makeup has become taboo. In the 21st century, Grindhouse, Balls of Fury
, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
, and Crank: High Voltage all featured Caucasian actors as Asian caricatures.
Recurring stereotypes such as the Fu Manchu
-style Asian villain or the Madame Butterfly-style Asian female love interest (with a white hero) were going largely unchallenged. Asian Americans formed advocacy groups such as the East West Players
and Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) to counter the practice.
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry censorship guidelines which governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures
released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It was originally popularly known as the Hays Code, after its creator, Will H. Hays
. With these guidelines, portrayals of miscegenation were forbidden.
Anti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation
laws, were laws that banned interracial marriage
and sometimes sex between members of two different races. In North America, laws against interracial marriage and interracial sex existed and were enforced in the Thirteen Colonies
from the late seventeenth century onwards, and subsequently in several US states and US territories until 1967.
. An Italian opera, Madama Butterfly
was created by Giacomo Puccini
after he saw a London play by David Belasco
that was based on the short story. The original production premiered on February 17, 1904, at La Scala
in Milan
.
It is the story of a teenaged Japanese maiden, Cio-Cio San, who marries and has a child with a white American navy lieutenant named Pinkerton. The Lieutenant leaves Cio-Cio San and returns home where, unknown to Cio-Cio San, he marries a white American. When he returns to Japan with his new wife, Cio-Cio San, who has given birth in the interim to Pinkerton's baby, kills herself.
The opera remains immensely popular but it has been accused of misogyny and racism. It is seen as perpetuating the notion of the dominant white male lording it over the subdued Asian female, who can be cast aside at will. Nonetheless, the opera does paint Pinkerton's conduct as reprehensible and the libretto
seeks to portray Cio-Cio San as a wronged individual worthy of sympathy and respect.
In 1915, the silent film version
was directed by Sidney Olcott
and starred Mary Pickford
as Cio-Cio-San.
princess (Norma Talmadge
) and an American. When palace officials discover she has fallen pregnant she is sentenced to death. In the latter part of the film Talmadge plays the now adult daughter of the affair, seeking her father in the Philippines
.
was originally a stage play, written by Harold Owen and Harry M. Vernon. It was first staged in London in 1913; the first U.S. production opened in New York on October 14, 1914. The actor Frank Morgan
was in the original Broadway cast, appearing under his original name Frank Wupperman.
Matheson Lang
was the first actor to portray Mr. Wu (in the 1913 West End production), who became so popular in the role that he starred in a 1919 film version. Lang continued to play Oriental roles (although not exclusively), and his autobiography was titled Mr. Wu Looks Back (1940).
Lon Chaney, Sr.
and Renée Adorée
were cast in the 1927 film. Cheekbones and lips were built up with cotton and collodion, the ends of cigar holders were inserted into his nostrils, and the long fingernails were constructed from stripes of painted film stock. Chaney used fishskin to fashion an Oriental cast to his eyes and grey crepe hair was used to create the distinctive Fu-Manchu moustache and goatee.
is based on a short story, "The Chink and the Child" taken from the book "Limehouse Nights" by Thomas Burke. It was released in 1919, during a period of strong anti-Chinese feeling in the USA, a fear known as the Yellow Peril
. Griffith changed Burke's original story to promote a message of tolerance. In Burke’s story, the Chinese protagonist is a sordid young Shanghai drifter pressed into naval service, who frequents opium
dens and whorehouses; in the film, he becomes a Buddhist missionary whose initial goal is to spread the word of Buddha and peace (although he is also shown frequenting opium dens when he is depressed). Even at his lowest point, he still prevents his gambling companions from fighting.
(1937) is a film
about Chinese
farmers who struggle to survive It was adapted by Talbot Jennings
, Tess Slesinger
, and Claudine West from the play by Donald Davis
and Owen Davis
, which was itself based on the 1931 novel The Good Earth
by Nobel Prize
-winning author Pearl S. Buck
The film was directed by Sidney Franklin
, Victor Fleming
(uncredited) and Gustav Machaty
(uncredited).
The film's budget was $2.8 million, a small fortune at the time, and took three years to make. Although Pearl Buck intended the film to be cast with all Chinese or Chinese-American actors, the studio opted to use established American stars, tapping Paul Muni
and Luise Rainer
for the lead roles. Both had won Oscars the previous year; Rainer for her role in The Great Ziegfeld
and Muni for the lead in The Story of Louis Pasteur
. When questioned about his choice of the American actors, Thalberg responded by saying, "I'm in the business of creating illusions."
In 1935, when MGM Studios was looking to make The Good Earth into a movie, Anna May Wong
was considered a top contender for the role of O-lan, the Chinese heroine of the novel. However, because Paul Muni was of European descent, the Hays Code's anti-miscegenation
rules meant his character's wife had to be played by a white woman. So, MGM gave the role of O-lan to a white actress and offered Wong the role of Lotus, the story’s villain, but Wong refused to be the only Chinese American playing the only negative character, stating: "...I won't play the part. If you let me play O-lan, I'll be very glad. But you're asking me - with Chinese blood - to do the only unsympathetic role in the picture featuring an all-American cast portraying Chinese characters." MGM's refusal to consider Wong for this most high-profile of Chinese characters in U.S. film is remembered today as "one of the most notorious cases of casting discrimination in the 1930s".
The Good Earth was nominated for a total of five Academy Awards
including Best Picture, Best Direction (Sidney Franklin
), Best Cinematography (Karl Freund
), and Best Film Editing (Basil Wrangell). In addition to the Best Actress
award (Luise Rainer), the film won for Best Cinematography. Ironically, the year The Good Earth came out, Wong appeared on the cover of Look
magazine's second issue, which labeled her "The World's Most Beautiful Chinese Girl." Stereotyped in America as a dragon lady, the cover photo had her holding a dagger.
, Rooney wore makeup to change his features to a caricatured approximation of a Japanese person.
In the 45th anniversary edition DVD release, producer Richard Shepherd
repeatedly apologizes, saying,"If we could just change Mickey Rooney, I'd be thrilled with the movie." Director Blake Edwards
stated,"Looking back, I wish I had never done it...and I would give anything to be able to recast it, but it's there, and onward and upward." In a 2008 interview about the film, 87-year-old Rooney said he was heartbroken about the criticism and that he had never received any complaints about his portrayal of the character.
played by the Swedish-American actor Warner Oland
. Oland repeated the role in 1930's The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
and 1931's Daughter of the Dragon
. Oland appeared in character in the 1931 musical, Paramount on Parade
where the Devil Doctor was seen to murder both Philo Vance
and Sherlock Holmes
.
In 1932, Boris Karloff
took over the character in the film The Mask of Fu Manchu
. The film's tone has long been considered racist and offensive, but that only added to its cult status alongside its humor and Grand Guignol
sets and torture sequences. The film was suppressed for many years, but has since received critical re-evaluation and been released on DVD uncut.
, The Painted Veil
, and Werewolf of London
.
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
actors, often while artificially changing their looks with makeup in order to approximate East Asian facial characteristics.
These portrayals are considered an example of the racism in the United States
Racism in the United States
Racism in the United States has been a major issue since the colonial era and the slave era. Legally sanctioned racism imposed a heavy burden on Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latin Americans...
and overt racism common to the times. During the late 19th Century and early parts of the 20th, numerous anti-Asian sentiments were expressed by politicians and writers, especially on the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
, with headlines like "The 'Yellow Peril'" (Los Angeles Times, 1886) and "Conference Endorses Chinese Exclusion" (The New York Times, 1905) and the later Japanese Exclusion Act. The American Immigration Act of 1924
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act , was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already...
limited the number of Asians because they were considered an "undesirable" race.
Early Asian American Actors
Lee Tung FooLee Tung Foo
Lee Tung Foo was a Chinese American Vaudeville performer born in California who performed in English, German, and Latin. He became a film actor later in his life....
was a well known singer due to his performances in vaudeville around the 1910s.
Around the same time, Sessue Hayakawa
Sessue Hayakawa
was a Japanese and American Issei 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...
began appearing in films. Signed to 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...
, he had roles in more than 20 silent films including The Wrath of the Gods (1914) and The Typhoon (1914). When Hayakawa's contract with Paramount expired in 1918, the studio still wanted him to star in an upcoming movie, but Hayakawa turned them down in favor of starting his own company. He was at the height of his popularity during that time. His career did suffer due to Anti-Japanese sentiment in the 1930s, but he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 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...
.
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...
, considered by many the first Chinese-American movie star, was acting by the age of 14 and in 1922, at 17 years old, she became the first Asian to break Hollywood’s miscegenation rule playing opposite a white romantic lead in Toll of the Sea. Even though she was internationally known by 1924, her film roles were limited by stereotype and prejudice; tired of being both typecast and being passed over for lead Asian character roles in favor of non-Asian actresses, Wong left Hollywood in 1928 for Europe. Interviewed by Doris Mackie for Film Weekly in 1933, Wong complained about her Hollywood roles: "I was so tired of the parts I had to play." She commented: "There seems little for me in Hollywood, because, rather than real Chinese, producers prefer Hungarians, Mexicans, American Indians for Chinese roles." In 1935, she was considered for the leading role in The Good Earth
The Good Earth (film)
The Good Earth is a film about Chinese farmers who struggle to survive. It was adapted by Talbot Jennings, Tess Slesinger, and Claudine West from the play by Donald Davis and Owen Davis, which was in itself based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S...
, which went to Caucasian actress Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer is a former German film actress. Known as The "Viennese Teardrop", she was the first woman to win two Academy Awards, and the first person to win them consecutively. She was discovered by MGM talent scouts while acting on stage in Austria and Germany and after appearing in Austrian...
. Wong refused the role of the villainess, the stereotypical Oriental Dragonlady.
Some Asian-American actors nonetheless attempted to start careers. Merle Oberon
Merle Oberon
Merle Oberon was an Indian-born British actress best known for her screen performances in The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Cowboy and the Lady . She began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII . She travelled to the United States to make films for Samuel...
, a mixed-race Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry, or people of British descent born or living in India, now mainly historical in the latter sense. British residents in India used the term "Eurasians" for people of mixed European and Indian descent...
, was able to get starring roles after concocting a phony story about her origins and using skin whitening make-up. Philip Ahn, after rejection for speaking English too well, braved death threats after playing Japanese villains. There were others like Barbara Jean Wong
Barbara Jean Wong
Barbara Jean Wong was an American actress and primarily a radio actress.She was a fourth generation Chinese-American born in Los Angeles, California, to produce market owners Thomas and Maye Wong...
, Fely Franquelli
Fely Franquelli
Fely Franquelli was a Filipino dancer, choreographer, and actress. Franquelli became known in the international dance scene in the 1930s.-Early life and career:Franquelli, who was of Filipino, Spanish, and Italian, was born in Manila...
, Benson Fong
Benson Fong
Benson Fong was a Chinese American character actor.Born in Sacramento, California, Fong was from a mercantile family...
, Chester Gan
Chester Gan
Chester Gan or at times Chester Gann was an American actor of Chinese descent. If there was a quintessential Asian John Smith character, then Chester Gan was that person...
, Honorable Wu, Kam Tong
Kam Tong
Kam Tong was a Chinese American actor best known for his role as Hey Boy on the television series Have Gun – Will Travel. He appeared in many movies, often as an uncredited Chinese, Japanese, or Filipino character...
, Keye Luke
Keye Luke
Keye Luke was a Chinese-born American actor. He was the first Chinese-American contract player signed with RKO, Universal and, later, MGM and is generally acknowledged as the leading Asian-American actor of this era of American cinema.-Background:...
, Layne Tom Jr.
Layne Tom Jr.
Layne Tom Jr. is an American actor. He holds the sole distinction of playing three different Charlie Chan sons: as Charlie Chan Jr...
, Maurice Liu, Philip Ahn, Richard Loo
Richard Loo
Richard Loo was a Chinese American film actor who was one of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s. A prolific actor, he appeared in over 120 films between 1931 and 1982....
, Lotus Long
Lotus Long
Born Lotus Pearl Shibata in New Jersey, Lotus Long was an American actor born to a father of Japanese ancestry and a mother of Hawai'ian ancestry. She came to Southern California during the 1920s to act in Hollywood films, and usually portrayed ethnic Asian female characters in supporting roles. ...
, Rudy Robles
Rudy Robles
Rudy Robles was a Filipino actor and one of the first Filipino actors to appear in Hollywood movies. His credits include pre- and post-World War II films, as Lt. Yabo in The Real Glory and he played a Filipino Assassin in the 1942 film Across the Pacific. One of his last appearances was playing a...
, Suzanna Kim, Teru Shimada
Teru Shimada
Teru Shimada was an acclaimed Japanese-American actor who was cast most famously as Mr. Osato, a SPECTRE agent in the 1967 James Bond film, You Only Live Twice. His film career began in 1932 with the Night Club Lady. He appeared with Peter Lorre in the 1939 classic Mr. Moto's Last Warning...
, Willie Fung, Victor Sen Yung
Victor Sen Yung
Victor Sen Yung was an American character actor. He was given billing under a variety of names, including Sen Yung, Sen Young, Victor Sen Young, and Victor Young.- Career :...
, Toshia Mori
Toshia Mori
Toshia Mori was a Japanese born actress, who had a brief career in American films during the 1930s. Born as Toshia Ichioka in Kyoto, Mori moved to the United States when she was ten years old....
and Wing Foo; all began their film careers in the 1930s and 40s.
With the number of Asian-American actors available, actor Robert Ito
Robert Ito
Robert Ito is a Canadian voice, television, and movie actor of Japanese decent.A Canadian actor of Japanese descent, Ito was, for many years, a dancer with the National Ballet of Canada before turning to acting in the mid-1960s...
wrote an article that described that job protection for Caucasian actors was one reason Asians were portrayed by Caucasians. "With the relatively small percentage of actors that support themselves by acting, it was only logical that they should try to limit the available talent pool as much as possible. One way of doing this was by placing restrictions on minority actors, which, in the case of Asian actors, meant that they could usually only get roles as houseboys, cooks, laundrymen, and crazed war enemies, with the rare "white hero's loyal sidekick" roles going to the big name actors. When the script called for a larger Asian role, it was almost inevitably given to a white actor."
Early history
In 1767, Arthur MurphyArthur Murphy
Arthur Murphy , also known by the pseudonym Charles Ranger, was an Irish writer.-Biography:He was born at Cloonyquin, County Roscommon, Ireland, the son of Richard Murphy and Jane French....
's theatrical work The Orphan of China
Orphan of Zhao
The Orphan of Zhao, or Orphan of the House Tcho is a Chinese play of the Yuan Dynasty, attributed to someone named Ji Junxiang , about whom almost nothing is known. Based on an episode in Shiji, the play has its full name The Great Revenge of the Orphan of Zhao Family .It is the first Chinese play...
was presented in Philadelphia. In this early production, the actors and the audiences had never seen an Asian. On screen, Mary Pickford
Mary 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...
, a white Canadian, played Cio-Cio San
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
in Madame Butterfly
Madame Butterfly (1915 film)
Madame Butterfly is a 1915 silent film directed by Sidney Olcott. The film is based upon a John Luther Long novel and the opera Madama Butterfly.-Production:...
in (1915).
The Welsh-American Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
was the "go to girl" for any portrayal of Asian characters and was typecasted
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...
in over a dozen films, while Chinese detective Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu...
, who was modeled after Chang Apana
Chang Apana
Chang Apana was a Chinese-Hawaiian member of the Honolulu Police Department, first as an officer, then as a detective. He is the officially acknowledged inspiration for the fictional Asian detective character, Charlie Chan.-Early life:Ah Ping Chang was born December 26, 1871 in Waipio, Oahu,...
, a real-life Chinese Hawaiian detective, was portrayed by several white actors including Warner Oland
Warner Oland
Warner Oland was a Swedish American actor most remembered for his screen role as the detective Charlie Chan.-Biography:He was born Johan Verner Ölund in the village of Nyby, Bjurholm Municipality,...
, Sidney Toler
Sidney Toler
Sidney Hooper Toler was an American actor, playwright, and theatre director. Of primarily Scottish ancestry, he was the second non-Asian actor to play the role of Charlie Chan.-Early life and career:...
, and Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
.
The list of actors who have donned makeup to portray Asians at some point in their career includes: Lon Chaney Sr., Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
, Loretta Young
Loretta Young
Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...
, Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
, Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
, Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
, Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
, Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award....
, Rex Harrison
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.-Youth and stage career:...
, John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
, Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
, Tony Randall
Tony Randall
Tony Randall was a U.S. actor, comic, producer and director.-Early years:Randall was born Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer...
, John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
, Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...
, Linda Hunt
Linda Hunt
Linda Hunt is an American film, stage and television actress. After making her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in Popeye , Hunt portrayed Billy Kwan, her breakthrough performance in The Year of Living Dangerously...
, David Carradine
David Carradine
David Carradine was an American actor and martial artist, best known for his role as a warrior monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu, which later had a 1990s sequel series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues...
, Joel Grey
Joel Grey
Joel Grey is an American stage and screen actor, singer, and dancer, best known for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film adaptation of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award and Golden Globe Award...
, and many others.
The use of yellowface makeup endured when blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
makeup has become taboo. In the 21st century, Grindhouse, Balls of Fury
Balls of Fury
Balls of Fury is a 2007 American sports comedy film starring Dan Fogler and Christopher Walken. It was directed by Ben Garant and was released on August 29, 2007.-Plot:...
, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is a 2007 comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan, written by Barry Fanaro, and starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James as the title characters. The film was released on July 20, 2007, in the U.S., August 16, 2007, in Australia and on September 21, 2007, in the UK and...
, and Crank: High Voltage all featured Caucasian actors as Asian caricatures.
Recurring stereotypes such as the Fu Manchu
Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century...
-style Asian villain or the Madame Butterfly-style Asian female love interest (with a white hero) were going largely unchallenged. Asian Americans formed advocacy groups such as the East West Players
East West Players
East West Players is an Asian American theatre organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1965. As one of the nation's first Asian American theatre organizations, East West Players today continues to produce works and educational programs that give voice to the Asian Pacific American...
and Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) to counter the practice.
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry censorship guidelines which governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It was originally popularly known as the Hays Code, after its creator, Will H. Hays
Will H. Hays
William Harrison Hays, Sr. , was the namesake of the Hays Code for censorship of American films, chairman of the Republican National Committee and U.S. Postmaster General from 1921 to 1922....
. With these guidelines, portrayals of miscegenation were forbidden.
Anti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation
Miscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....
laws, were laws that banned interracial marriage
Interracial marriage
Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...
and sometimes sex between members of two different races. In North America, laws against interracial marriage and interracial sex existed and were enforced in the Thirteen Colonies
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
from the late seventeenth century onwards, and subsequently in several US states and US territories until 1967.
Madame Butterfly
Madame Butterfly was originally a short story written by John Luther LongJohn Luther Long
John Luther Long was an American lawyer and writer best known for his short story "Madame Butterfly", which was based on the recollections of his sister, Jennie Correll, who had been to Japan with her husband—a Methodist missionary.Born in Hanover, Pennsylvania, Long had been admitted to the bar...
. An Italian opera, Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
was created by Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
after he saw a London play by David Belasco
David Belasco
David Belasco was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director and playwright.-Biography:Born in San Francisco, California, where his Sephardic Jewish parents had moved from London, England, during the Gold Rush, he began working in a San Francisco theatre doing a variety of routine jobs,...
that was based on the short story. The original production premiered on February 17, 1904, at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
.
It is the story of a teenaged Japanese maiden, Cio-Cio San, who marries and has a child with a white American navy lieutenant named Pinkerton. The Lieutenant leaves Cio-Cio San and returns home where, unknown to Cio-Cio San, he marries a white American. When he returns to Japan with his new wife, Cio-Cio San, who has given birth in the interim to Pinkerton's baby, kills herself.
The opera remains immensely popular but it has been accused of misogyny and racism. It is seen as perpetuating the notion of the dominant white male lording it over the subdued Asian female, who can be cast aside at will. Nonetheless, the opera does paint Pinkerton's conduct as reprehensible and the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
seeks to portray Cio-Cio San as a wronged individual worthy of sympathy and respect.
In 1915, the silent film version
Madame Butterfly (1915 film)
Madame Butterfly is a 1915 silent film directed by Sidney Olcott. The film is based upon a John Luther Long novel and the opera Madama Butterfly.-Production:...
was directed by Sidney Olcott
Sidney Olcott
Sidney Olcott was a Canadian-born film producer, director, actor and screenwriter.-Biography:Born John Sidney Alcott in Toronto, he became one of the first great directors of the motion picture business...
and starred Mary Pickford
Mary 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...
as Cio-Cio-San.
The Forbidden City
The Forbidden City was released in 1918. The plot centers around an inter-racial romance between a ChineseChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
princess (Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.Her most famous film was Smilin’ Through , but she also...
) and an American. When palace officials discover she has fallen pregnant she is sentenced to death. In the latter part of the film Talmadge plays the now adult daughter of the affair, seeking her father in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
Mr. Wu
Mr. WuMr. Wu
Mr. Wu is a 1927 silent movie about a Chinese patriarch who tries to exact revenge on the Englishman who seduced his daughter.-Cast:*Lon Chaney - Mr. Wu/Grandfather Wu*Louise Dresser - Mrs. Gregory*Renee Adoree - Wu Nang Ping...
was originally a stage play, written by Harold Owen and Harry M. Vernon. It was first staged in London in 1913; the first U.S. production opened in New York on October 14, 1914. The actor Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
was in the original Broadway cast, appearing under his original name Frank Wupperman.
Matheson Lang
Matheson Lang
Matheson Alexander Lang was a Canadian-born stage and film actor and playwright in the early 20th century. He is best remembered for his performances roles in Great Britain in Shakespeare plays.-Biography:...
was the first actor to portray Mr. Wu (in the 1913 West End production), who became so popular in the role that he starred in a 1919 film version. Lang continued to play Oriental roles (although not exclusively), and his autobiography was titled Mr. Wu Looks Back (1940).
Lon Chaney, Sr.
Lon Chaney, Sr.
Lon Chaney , nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," was an American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema...
and Renée Adorée
Renée Adorée
Renée Adorée was a French actress who had appeared in Hollywood silent movies during the 1920s.-Early life:...
were cast in the 1927 film. Cheekbones and lips were built up with cotton and collodion, the ends of cigar holders were inserted into his nostrils, and the long fingernails were constructed from stripes of painted film stock. Chaney used fishskin to fashion an Oriental cast to his eyes and grey crepe hair was used to create the distinctive Fu-Manchu moustache and goatee.
Broken Blossoms
The film Broken BlossomsBroken Blossoms
Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl is a 1919 silent film directed by D.W. Griffith. It was distributed by United Artists and premiered on May 13, 1919...
is based on a short story, "The Chink and the Child" taken from the book "Limehouse Nights" by Thomas Burke. It was released in 1919, during a period of strong anti-Chinese feeling in the USA, a fear known as the 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...
. Griffith changed Burke's original story to promote a message of tolerance. In Burke’s story, the Chinese protagonist is a sordid young Shanghai drifter pressed into naval service, who frequents opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
dens and whorehouses; in the film, he becomes a Buddhist missionary whose initial goal is to spread the word of Buddha and peace (although he is also shown frequenting opium dens when he is depressed). Even at his lowest point, he still prevents his gambling companions from fighting.
The Good Earth
The Good EarthThe Good Earth (film)
The Good Earth is a film about Chinese farmers who struggle to survive. It was adapted by Talbot Jennings, Tess Slesinger, and Claudine West from the play by Donald Davis and Owen Davis, which was in itself based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S...
(1937) is a film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
about Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
farmers who struggle to survive It was adapted by Talbot Jennings
Talbot Jennings
Talbot Jennings was an American screenwriter.He was born in 1894 in Shoshone, Idaho, his father was an Episcopal archdeacon for Idaho and Wyoming. He attended Nampa High School before World War I in which he served. After to war he went to University of Idaho and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1924...
, Tess Slesinger
Tess Slesinger
Tess Slesinger was a Jewish-American writer and screenwriter and is credited as being a charter member of the New York intellectual scene....
, and Claudine West from the play by Donald Davis
Donald Davis (writer)
Donald Davis was an American playwright and screenwriter. He wrote the play and film adaptations of The Good Earth, among others.He was married to actress Dorothy Matthews...
and Owen Davis
Owen Davis
Owen Gould Davis, Sr. was an American dramatist. He received the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1923 play Icebound, and penned hundreds of plays and scripts for radio and film. Before the First World War, he also wrote racy sketches of New York high jinks and low life for the Police Gazette...
, which was itself based on the 1931 novel The Good Earth
The Good Earth
The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. The best selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932, it was an influential factor in Buck winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938...
by Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
-winning author Pearl S. Buck
Pearl S. Buck
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu , was an American writer who spent most of her time until 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932...
The film was directed by Sidney Franklin
Sidney Franklin (director)
Sidney Franklin was an American film director and producer. His brother Chester Franklin also became a director during the silent film era best known for helming the early Technicolor film Toll of the Sea....
, Victor Fleming
Victor Fleming
Victor Lonzo Fleming was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz , and Gone with the Wind , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.-Life and career:Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen ...
(uncredited) and Gustav Machaty
Gustav Machatý
Gustav Machatý was a Czech film director, screenwriter and actor. He directed 17 films between 1919 and 1955, including Ecstasy...
(uncredited).
The film's budget was $2.8 million, a small fortune at the time, and took three years to make. Although Pearl Buck intended the film to be cast with all Chinese or Chinese-American actors, the studio opted to use established American stars, tapping Paul Muni
Paul Muni
Paul Muni was an Austrian-Hungarian-born American stage and film actor...
and Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer is a former German film actress. Known as The "Viennese Teardrop", she was the first woman to win two Academy Awards, and the first person to win them consecutively. She was discovered by MGM talent scouts while acting on stage in Austria and Germany and after appearing in Austrian...
for the lead roles. Both had won Oscars the previous year; Rainer for her role in The Great Ziegfeld
The Great Ziegfeld
The Great Ziegfeld is a 1936 musical film produced by MGM. A fictionalized biography of Florenz Ziegfeld from his show business beginnings to his death, it showcases a series of spectacular musical productions. The film includes original music by Walter Donaldson and Irving Berlin...
and Muni for the lead in The Story of Louis Pasteur
The Story of Louis Pasteur
The Story of Louis Pasteur is a 1936 American biographical film. It starred Paul Muni as the renowned scientist. It was written by Toni Pollastre and Sheridan Gibney, and Edward Chodorov , and directed by William Dieterle....
. When questioned about his choice of the American actors, Thalberg responded by saying, "I'm in the business of creating illusions."
In 1935, when MGM Studios was looking to make The Good Earth into a movie, 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...
was considered a top contender for the role of O-lan, the Chinese heroine of the novel. However, because Paul Muni was of European descent, the Hays Code's anti-miscegenation
Anti-miscegenation laws
Anti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that enforced racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different races...
rules meant his character's wife had to be played by a white woman. So, MGM gave the role of O-lan to a white actress and offered Wong the role of Lotus, the story’s villain, but Wong refused to be the only Chinese American playing the only negative character, stating: "...I won't play the part. If you let me play O-lan, I'll be very glad. But you're asking me - with Chinese blood - to do the only unsympathetic role in the picture featuring an all-American cast portraying Chinese characters." MGM's refusal to consider Wong for this most high-profile of Chinese characters in U.S. film is remembered today as "one of the most notorious cases of casting discrimination in the 1930s".
The Good Earth was nominated for a total of five Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
including Best Picture, Best Direction (Sidney Franklin
Sidney Franklin (director)
Sidney Franklin was an American film director and producer. His brother Chester Franklin also became a director during the silent film era best known for helming the early Technicolor film Toll of the Sea....
), Best Cinematography (Karl Freund
Karl Freund
Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. was a cinematographer and film director most noted for photographing Metropolis , Dracula , and television's I Love Lucy .-Early life:...
), and Best Film Editing (Basil Wrangell). In addition to the Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
award (Luise Rainer), the film won for Best Cinematography. Ironically, the year The Good Earth came out, Wong appeared on the cover of Look
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
magazine's second issue, which labeled her "The World's Most Beautiful Chinese Girl." Stereotyped in America as a dragon lady, the cover photo had her holding a dagger.
Breakfast at Tiffany's
The 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's has been criticized for its portrayal of the character Mr. Yunioshi, Holly's bucktoothed, stereotyped Japanese neighbor. Played by Mickey RooneyMickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
, Rooney wore makeup to change his features to a caricatured approximation of a Japanese person.
In the 45th anniversary edition DVD release, producer Richard Shepherd
Richard Shepherd
Richard Charles Scrimgeour Shepherd is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom. He is currently a Member of Parliament, having represented the constituency of Aldridge-Brownhills since 1979....
repeatedly apologizes, saying,"If we could just change Mickey Rooney, I'd be thrilled with the movie." Director Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...
stated,"Looking back, I wish I had never done it...and I would give anything to be able to recast it, but it's there, and onward and upward." In a 2008 interview about the film, 87-year-old Rooney said he was heartbroken about the criticism and that he had never received any complaints about his portrayal of the character.
Fu Manchu
In 1929 the character Fu Manchu made his American film debut in The Mysterious Dr. Fu ManchuThe Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu is a 1929 film starring Warner Oland as Dr. Fu Manchu. It was the first Fu Manchu film of the talkie era. It was very loosely based on the novel, The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer.-Synopsis:...
played by the Swedish-American actor Warner Oland
Warner Oland
Warner Oland was a Swedish American actor most remembered for his screen role as the detective Charlie Chan.-Biography:He was born Johan Verner Ölund in the village of Nyby, Bjurholm Municipality,...
. Oland repeated the role in 1930's The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu is the second of three films starring Warner Oland as the fiendish Fu Manchu, who returns from apparent death in the previous movie to seek revenge on those he holds responsible for the death of his wife and child. It was loosely adapted from the novel of the same name...
and 1931's 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...
. Oland appeared in character in the 1931 musical, Paramount on Parade
Paramount on Parade
Paramount on Parade is a all-star revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Victor Heerman, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H...
where the Devil Doctor was seen to murder both Philo Vance
Philo Vance
Philo Vance featured in 12 crime novels written by S. S. Van Dine , published in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, movies, and on the radio. He was portrayed as a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent...
and Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
.
In 1932, Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
took over the character in the film The Mask of Fu Manchu
The Mask of Fu Manchu
The Mask of Fu Manchu is a Pre-Code adventure film released in 1932, featuring Boris Karloff as Fu Manchu and Myrna Loy as his daughter. The movie revolves around Fu Manchu's quest for the sword and mask of Genghis Khan. Lewis Stone plays his nemesis...
. The film's tone has long been considered racist and offensive, but that only added to its cult status alongside its humor and Grand Guignol
Grand Guignol
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol — known as the Grand Guignol — was a theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris . From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows...
sets and torture sequences. The film was suppressed for many years, but has since received critical re-evaluation and been released on DVD uncut.
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan was played by Warner Oland. Films included Shanghai ExpressShanghai Express (film)
Shanghai Express is a 1932 American film directed by Josef von Sternberg. The pre-Code picture stars Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, and Warner Oland. It was written by Jules Furthman, based on a story by Harry Hervey. It was the fourth of seven teamings of Sternberg and Dietrich.The...
, The Painted Veil
The Painted Veil (1934 film)
The Painted Veil is a 1934 drama film made by MGM. It was directed by Ryszard Bolesławski and produced by Hunt Stromberg from a screenplay by John Meehan, Salka Viertel, and Edith Fitzgerald, adapted from the 1925 W. Somerset Maugham novel The Painted Veil. The music score was by Herbert Stothart,...
, and Werewolf of London
Werewolf of London
Werewolf of London is a 1935 Horror/werewolf movie starring Henry Hull and produced by Universal Pictures. Jack Pierce's eerie werewolf make-up was simpler than his version six years later for Lon Chaney, Jr., in The Wolf Man but, according to film historians, remains strikingly effective as worn...
.
Other Films
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Actor/s | Notes |
| 1932 | The Hatchet Man The Hatchet Man The Hatchet Man is a Pre-Code film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Edward G. Robinson. Warner Bros. had purchased the David Belasco/Achmed Abdullah play The Honorable Mr. Wong about the Tong gang wars... |
Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo... and Loretta Young Loretta Young Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953... |
|
| 1932 | Frisco Jenny Frisco Jenny Frisco Jenny is a Pre-Code drama film starring Ruth Chatterton and directed by William A. Wellman.-Plot:In 1906 San Francisco, Frisco Jenny Sandoval , a denizen of the notorious Tenderloin district, wants to marry piano player Dan McAllister , but her saloonkeeper father Jim is adamantly opposed... |
Helen Jerome Eddy Helen Jerome Eddy Helen Jerome Eddy was a motion picture actress from New York, New York. She was noted as a character actress who played genteel heroines in films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm .-Biography:... |
|
| 1932 | Thirteen Women Thirteen Women Thirteen Women is a psychological thriller film, produced by David O. Selznick and directed by George Archainbaud. It starred Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez, Florence Eldridge and Jill Esmond... |
Myrna Loy Myrna Loy Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles... |
Cult Classic Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I... " status in recent years. A pre-code era film, modern critics have stated that its theme was ahead of its time and out of step with the tastes of 1930s cinema patrons. |
| 1933 | The Bitter Tea of General Yen The Bitter Tea of General Yen The Bitter Tea of General Yen is a pre-Code 1933 film, directed by Frank Capra based on the novel by Grace Zaring Stone and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Nils Asther.... |
Nils Asther Nils Asther Nils Anton Alfhild Asther was a Danish-born Swedish actor active in Hollywood from 1926 to the mid 1950s, known for his beautiful face and often called "the male Greta Garbo"... |
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... film critic Derek Malcolm Derek Malcolm Derek Malcolm is a British film critic and historian.Malcolm was educated at Eton College and Oxford University. He worked for several decades as a film critic for The Guardian, having previously been an amateur jockey and the paper's first horse racing correspondent. In 1977, he was a member of... as one of the hundred best films in The Century of Films. Toshia Mori Toshia Mori was a Japanese born actress, who had a brief career in American films during the 1930s. Born as Toshia Ichioka in Kyoto, Mori moved to the United States when she was ten years old.... who in 1932 became the only Asian actress to be selected as a WAMPAS Baby Star WAMPAS Baby Stars The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual... , an annual list of young and promising film actresses, was billed third in the film's credits, behind Barbara Stanwyck Barbara Stanwyck Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra... and Nils Asther Nils Asther Nils Anton Alfhild Asther was a Danish-born Swedish actor active in Hollywood from 1926 to the mid 1950s, known for his beautiful face and often called "the male Greta Garbo"... . This was her most significant film role, she returned to minor characters in her subsequent films. |
| 1934 | The Mysterious Mr. Wong The Mysterious Mr. Wong The Mysterious Mr. Wong is a mystery film starring Bela Lugosi as a powerful criminal of the Chinatown underworld, and Wallace Ford as a wisecracking reporter.-Plot:... |
Bela Lugosi Béla Lugosi Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his... |
Béla Lugosi Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his... stars as Mr. Wong, a "harmless" Chinatown shopkeeper by day and relentless blood-thirsty pursuer of the Twelve Coins of Confucius by night. |
| 1937 | Lost Horizon | H.B. Warner |
Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains... . H.B. Warner lost the Academy Award 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... to Joseph Schildkraut Joseph Schildkraut Joseph Schildkraut was an Austrian stage and film actor.-Early life:Born in Vienna, Austria, Schildkraut was the son of stage actor Rudolph Schildkraut. The younger Schildkraut moved to the United States in the early 1900s. He appeared in many Broadway productions... for the same film. |
| 1937–1939 | Mr. Moto Mr. Moto Mr. Moto is a fictional Japanese secret agent created by the American author John P. Marquand. He appeared in six novels by Marquand published between 1935 and 1957. Marquand initially created the character for the Saturday Evening Post, which was seeking stories with an Asian hero after the death... film series |
Peter Lorre Peter Lorre Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M... as Mr. Moto Mr. Moto Mr. Moto is a fictional Japanese secret agent created by the American author John P. Marquand. He appeared in six novels by Marquand published between 1935 and 1957. Marquand initially created the character for the Saturday Evening Post, which was seeking stories with an Asian hero after the death... film series |
|
| 1939 | Island of Lost Men Island of Lost Men Island of Lost Men is a 1939 American movie directed by Kurt Neumann and starring Anna May Wong, J. Carrol Naish, and Anthony Quinn. It tells the story of the daughter of a general who goes to look for her father after he disappears... |
Anthony Quinn Anthony Quinn Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer... |
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... plays Kim Ling Anthony Quinn Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer... is in yellowface and portrays Chang Tai, a "Chinese" agent. |
| 1939 | The Mystery of Mr. Wong The Mystery of Mr. Wong The Mystery of Mr. Wong is a 1939 mystery film directed by William Nigh and starring Boris Karloff.-Plot:The second in the series of Mr. Wong features starring Boris Karloff finds wealthy gem-collector Brandon Edwards gaining possession of the largest star sapphire in the world, the 'Eye of the... |
Boris Karloff Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein... |
Chester Gan Chester Gan or at times Chester Gann was an American actor of Chinese descent. If there was a quintessential Asian John Smith character, then Chester Gan was that person... , Lotus Long Lotus Long Born Lotus Pearl Shibata in New Jersey, Lotus Long was an American actor born to a father of Japanese ancestry and a mother of Hawai'ian ancestry. She came to Southern California during the 1920s to act in Hollywood films, and usually portrayed ethnic Asian female characters in supporting roles. ... as the maid, Lee Tung Foo Lee Tung Foo Lee Tung Foo was a Chinese American Vaudeville performer born in California who performed in English, German, and Latin. He became a film actor later in his life.... as Mr. Wong's Butler and door opener. |
| 1940 | The Letter The Letter (1940 film) The Letter is a 1940 American film noir directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Howard Koch is based on the 1927 play of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham, originally filmed in 1929.-Plot:... |
Gale Sondergaard Gale Sondergaard Gale Sondergaard was an American actress.Sondergaard began her acting career in theatre, and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in Anthony Adverse... |
Variety (magazine) Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the... said, "Never has [the W. Somerset Maugham play] been done with greater production values, a better all-around cast or finer direction. Its defect is its grimness. Director William Wyler, however, sets himself a tempo which is in rhythm with the Malay locale . . . Davis' frigidity at times seems to go even beyond the characterization. On the other hand, Marshall never falters. Virtually stealing these honors in the pic, however, is Stephenson as the attorney, while Sondergaard is the perfect mask-like threat". |
| 1942 | Little Tokyo, U.S.A. Little Tokyo, U.S.A. Little Tokyo, U.S.A. is an American film, produced during World War II, that was condemned by United States Office of War Information as an "invitation to the Witch Hunt", preaching hate for all people of Japanese descent.-Plot:... |
Harold Huber Harold Huber Harold Huber was an American actor who appeared on film, radio and television.-Early life:Huber was born Harold Joseph Huberman in the Bronx to Joseph Huberman and "Mammie" Glassberg, Jewish immigrants from Imperial Russia, who had arrived in the United States as infants. His father was the... as Takimura, American-born spy for Tokyo, June Duprez June Duprez June Duprez was an English film actress.The daughter of American vaudeville performer Fred Duprez, she was born in Teddington, Middlesex, England, during an air raid in the final months of World War I.... as Teru |
Richard Loo Richard Loo was a Chinese American film actor who was one of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s. A prolific actor, he appeared in over 120 films between 1931 and 1982.... played one of the lead Japanese roles in the film. |
| 1944 | Dragon Seed | Katharine Hepburn Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies... , Walter Huston Walter Huston Walter Thomas Huston was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.-Life and career:... , Aline MacMahon Aline MacMahon Aline MacMahon was an American actress. Her career began on stage in 1921. She worked extensively in film and television until her retirement in 1975. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Dragon Seed .-Early life:Aline Laveen MacMahon was born... , Turhan Bey Turhan Bey Turhan Bey is an American actor of Turkish and Czech descent. Bey was active in Hollywood from 1941 to 1953. He was dubbed "The Turkish Delight" by his fans for his exotic handsome looks... , Agnes Moorehead Agnes Moorehead Agnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences... , J. Carrol Naish J. Carrol Naish Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish was an American character actor born in New York City. Naish was twice nominated for an Academy Award for film roles, and he later found fame in the title role of CBS Radio's Life With Luigi , which was also on CBS Television .Naish appeared on stage for several years... , and Hurd Hatfield Hurd Hatfield William Rukard Hurd Hatfield was an American actor.-Biography:The son of William Henry Hatfield , an attorney who served as deputy attorney general for New York, and his wife, the former Adele Steele, Hatfield was born in New York City, and was educated at Columbia University before travelling to... |
Pearl S. Buck Pearl Sydenstricker Buck also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu , was an American writer who spent most of her time until 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932... , the film portrays a peaceful village in China China Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture... that has been invaded by the Imperial Japanese Army Imperial Japanese Army -Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū... during the Second Sino-Japanese war Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States... . The men in the village choose to adopt a peaceful attitude toward their conquerors, but Jade (played by Hepburn), a headstrong woman, stands up to the Japanese.
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| 1946 | Anna and the King of Siam | Rex Harrison Rex Harrison Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.-Youth and stage career:... , Linda Darnell Linda Darnell Linda Darnell was an American film actress.Darnell was a model as a child, and progressed to theater and film acting as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s... , and Gale Sondergaard Gale Sondergaard Gale Sondergaard was an American actress.Sondergaard began her acting career in theatre, and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in Anthony Adverse... |
19th Academy Awards The 19th Academy Awards continued a trend through the late-1940s of the Oscar voters honoring films about contemporary social issues. The Best Years of Our Lives concerns the lives of three returning veterans from three branches of military service as they adjust to life on the home front after... ceremony, the film received two Oscars; for Best Cinematography Academy Award for Best Cinematography The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:... and Best Art Direction Academy Award for Best Art Direction The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999... (Lyle R. Wheeler Lyle R. Wheeler Lyle Reynolds Wheeler, , was an Academy Award-winning American motion picture art director.... , William S. Darling William S. Darling William S. Darling was a Hungarian-born art director. He was born as Wilhelm Sándorházi. He won three Academy Awards and was nominated for a further four in the category Best Art Direction... , Thomas Little Thomas Little Thomas Little was a United States set decorator on more than 450 Hollywood movies between 1932 and 1953. He won a total of 6 Oscars for art direction and received 21 nominations in the same category... , Frank E. Hughes Frank E. Hughes Frank E. Hughes was an American set decorator. He won an Academy Award and was nominated for another in the category Best Art Direction.-Selected filmography:Hughes won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction and was nominated for another:Won... ) |
| 1946 | Ziegfeld Follies Ziegfeld Follies (film) Ziegfeld Follies is a 1945 Hollywood musical comedy film directed by Lemuel Ayers, Roy Del Ruth, Robert Lewis, Vincente Minnelli, Merrill Pye, George Sidney and Charles Waters... |
Fred Astaire Fred Astaire Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute... and Lucille Bremer Lucille Bremer Lucille Bremer was an American film actress and dancer.Bremer was born in Amsterdam, New York and began her career as a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, aged 16. Bremer, along with fellow stars Vera-Ellen and June Allyson, appeared as a 'Pony Girl' in the Broadway musical Panama... |
Limehouse Limehouse Limehouse is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is on the northern bank of the River Thames opposite Rotherhithe and between Ratcliff to the west and Millwall to the east.... Blues: Conceived as a "dramatic pantomime" with Astaire as a proud but poverty-stricken Chinese labourer whose infatuation with the unattainable Bremer leads to tragedy. The story serves as bookends for a dream ballet inspired by Chinese dance motifs in an unfortunate, racially stereotyped setting. |
| 1955 | Blood Alley Blood Alley Blood Alley is a 1955 seafaring adventure movie starring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall set in China.-Background:The film was written by Albert Sidney Fleischman from his novel, directed by William Wellman and was produced by Wayne's Batjac Productions... |
Anita Ekberg Anita Ekberg Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.-Biography:Ekberg was born in... , Berry Kroeger Berry Kroeger Berry Kroeger was an American film, television, and stage actor.Born in San Antonio, Texas, Kroeger got his acting start on radio as an announcer and actor, playing for a time The Falcon and The Shadow... , Paul Fix Paul Fix Paul Fix was an American film and television character actor, best known for his work in westerns. Fix appeared in more than a hundred movies and dozens of television shows over a 56-year career spanning from 1925 to 1981... , and Mike Mazurki Mike Mazurki Mike Mazurki was an Austrian-born American actor and professional wrestler who appeared in over 100 movies. His towering 6' 5" presence and intimidating face usually got him roles playing tough guys, thugs, strong men, and gangsters.Mazurki was born as Mikhail Mazurkevych in Tarnopol, Galicia,... |
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| 1955 | Love is a Many Splendored Thing Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (film) Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing is a 1955 American drama-romance film. Set in 1949-50 Hong Kong, it tells the story of a married, but separated, American reporter , who falls in love with a Eurasian doctor originally from China , only to encounter prejudice from her family and from Hong Kong... |
Jennifer Jones Jennifer Jones Phylis Lee Isley , better known by her stage name Jennifer Jones, was an American actress. A five-time Academy Award nominee, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette .-Early life:Jones was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Flora Mae and... |
1950s in Hong Kong 1950s in Hong Kong began after the Japanese rule ended in 1945 with sovereignty returning to the British. However, the Nationalist-Communist Civil War was renewed in mainland China. It prompted a large influx of refugees from the mainland, causing a huge population surge. The government struggled... , it tells the story of a married, but separated, American reporter (played by William Holden William Holden William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974... ), who falls in love with a Eurasian Eurasian (mixed ancestry) The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent.... doctor originally from Mainland China Mainland China Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and... (played by Jennifer Jones), only to encounter prejudice from her family and from Hong Kong society. Academy Awards An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers... for Best Costume Design, Color Academy Award for Costume Design The Academy Award for Best Costume Design is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievement in film costume design.... , Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Academy Award for Original Music Score The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:... and Best Music, Song (for Sammy Fain Sammy Fain Sammy Fain was an American composer of popular music.-Biography:Sammy Fain was born in New York City. In 1923, Fain appeared with Artie Dunn in a short film directed by Lee De Forest filmed in DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process. In 1925, Fain left the Fain-Dunn act to devote himself to... and Paul Francis Webster Paul Francis Webster Paul Francis Webster was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Song and was nominated sixteen times for the award.-Biography:... for "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (song) "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" is a popular song with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. The song was publicized first in the movie, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing , winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song... "). Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... (Jennifer Jones), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color Academy Award for Best Art Direction The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999... (Lyle Wheeler, George Davis George Davis (art director) -Career:Davis began his career at 20th Century Fox, his first film was Joseph L. Mankiewicz's fantasy The Ghost and Mrs. Muir in 1947, a director for whom he frequently worked, notably on House of Strangers , All About Eve -Career:Davis began his career at 20th Century Fox, his first film was... , Walter M. Scott Walter M. Scott Walter M. Scott was an Academy Award-winning set decorator who worked on films such as The Sound of Music and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.... , Jack Stubbs Jack Stubbs Jack Stubbs was an American set decorator. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing.-Selected filmography:* Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing -External links:... ), Best Cinematography, Color Academy Award for Best Cinematography The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:... , 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... and Best Sound, Recording Academy Award for Sound The Academy Award for Sound Mixing is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most euphonic sound mixing or recording, and is generally awarded to the production sound mixers and re-recording mixers of the winning film. Compare this award to the Academy Award for Sound Editing... . |
| 1956 | The Conqueror The Conqueror (film) The Conqueror is a 1956 CinemaScope epic film produced by Howard Hughes and starring John Wayne as the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. Other performers included Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and Pedro Armendáriz. Directed by actor/director Dick Powell, the film was principally shot near St... |
John Wayne John Wayne Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height... |
The Golden Turkey Awards The Golden Turkey Awards is a 1980 book by film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry Medved.The book awards the fictional "Golden Turkey Awards" to films judged by the authors as poor in quality, and to directors and actors judged to have created a chronically inept body of work... .) |
| 1956 | The King and I The King and I (1956 film) The King and I is a 1956 musical film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical The King and I, based in turn on the book Anna and the King... |
Yul Brynner Yul Brynner Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor of stage and film. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times on... and Rita Moreno Rita Moreno Rita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award.... |
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| 1956 | The Teahouse of the August Moon | Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St... |
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| 1958 | The Inn of the Sixth Happiness The Inn of the Sixth Happiness The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is a 1958 American 20th Century Fox film based on the true story of Gladys Aylward, a tenacious British maid, who became a missionary in China during the tumultuous years leading up to World War II... |
*Curd Jürgens Curd Jürgens Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens was a German-Austrian stage and film actor. He was usually billed in English-speaking films as Curt Jurgens.-Early life:... and Robert Donat Robert Donat Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr... |
The film makers, since release, have been criticised for casting, Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute... , a tall woman with a Swedish accent, as Gladys Aylward who was in fact short and had a cockney Cockney The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End... accent. Likewise, the two leads, British United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... actor Robert Donat Robert Donat Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr... and 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... actor Curt Juergens were not even Chinese. |
| 1961 | Flower Drum Song Flower Drum Song (film) Flower Drum Song is a 1961 film adaptation of the 1958 Broadway musical Flower Drum Song, written by the composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The film and stage play were based on the 1957 novel of the same name by the Chinese American author C. Y... |
Juanita Hall Juanita Hall Juanita Hall was an American musical theatre and film actress. She is remembered for her roles in the original stage and screen versions of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals South Pacific as Bloody Mary and Flower Drum Song as Auntie Liang.-Biography:Born in Keyport, New Jersey, Hall received... |
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| 1962 | The Manchurian Candidate The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film) The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver... |
Henry Silva | Notes |
| 1962 | My Geisha My Geisha My Geisha is a 1962 American comedy film directed by Jack Cardiff, starring Yves Montand, Shirley MacLaine, and Edward G. Robinson, and released by Paramount Pictures... |
Shirley MacLaine Shirley MacLaine Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career... |
Notes |
| 1962 | A Majority of One A Majority of One -Plot:The comedy involves Mrs. Jacoby, a Jewish widow from Brooklyn, New York, and Koichi Asano, a millionaire widower from Tokyo. Mrs. Jacoby is sailing to Japan with her daughter and foreign service officer son-in-law who is being posted to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo... |
Alec Guinness Alec Guinness Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai... |
Notes |
| 1963 | 55 Days at Peking 55 Days at Peking 55 Days at Peking is a 1963 historical epic film starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, and David Niven, made by Samuel Bronston Productions, and released by Allied Artists. The movie was produced by Samuel Bronston and directed by Nicholas Ray, Andrew Marton , and Guy Green... |
Flora Robson Flora Robson Dame Flora McKenzie Robson DBE was an English actress, renowned as a character actress, who played roles ranging from queens to villainesses.-Early life:... |
Notes |
| 1964 | 7 Faces of Dr. Lao 7 Faces of Dr. Lao 7 Faces of Dr. Lao is a Metrocolor 1964 film adaptation of the 1935 fantasy novel The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney. It details the visit of a magical circus to a small town in the southwest United States, and the effects that visit has on the people of the town... |
Tony Randall Tony Randall Tony Randall was a U.S. actor, comic, producer and director.-Early years:Randall was born Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer... |
Notes |
| 1965 | Pierrot le fou Pierrot le fou Pierrot le fou is a 1965 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo. The film is based on Obsession, a novel by Lionel White. It was Jean-Luc Godard's tenth feature film, released between Alphaville and Masculin, féminin... |
Anna Karina Anna Karina Anna Karina is a Danish film actress, director, and screenwriter who has spent most of her working life in France. Karina is known as a muse of the director, Jean-Luc Godard, one of the pioneers of the French New Wave... |
Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of... . Director Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave".... is famed for his edgy, unapologetic political statements in his films which was especially prevalent in his work during the 60's and 70's. |
| 1965 | Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (1965 film) Genghis Khan is a 1965 film depicting the life and conquests of the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan. It was released in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1965 by Columbia Pictures, and was directed by Henry Levin, and starred Omar Sharif, who that same year starred in another epic, Doctor... |
Robert Morley Robert Morley Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment... , James Mason James Mason James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the... and others |
Notes |
| 1965 | Gilligan's Island Gilligan's Island Gilligan's Island is an American television series created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz and originally produced by United Artists Television. The situation comedy series featured Bob Denver; Alan Hale, Jr.; Jim Backus; Natalie Schafer; Tina Louise; Russell Johnson; and Dawn Wells. It aired for... |
Vito Scotti Vito Scotti Vito Scotti was a veteran character actor who played many roles, primarily from the late-1940s to the mid-1990s. He was known as a man of a thousand faces, for his ability to assume so many divergent roles in more than 200 screen roles, in a nearly 50 year career. He was known for his resourceful... |
Notes |
| 1965 | Get Smart Get Smart Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt... |
Leonard Strong (actor) Leonard Strong (actor) Leonard Clarence Strong Leonard Clarence Strong Leonard Clarence Strong (b. 12 August 1908, Utah - d. 23 January 1980, Glendale, California was a prolific American character actor specialising in playing Asian roles.... |
As "The Claw", in the episode: "Diplomat's Daughter". "Not Craw, Craw!" |
| 1965 | The Return of Mr. Moto The Return of Mr. Moto The Return of Mr. Moto is a 1965 British crime film directed by Ernest Morris and starring Henry Silva, Terence Longdon and Suzanne Lloyd. Mr. Moto is brought in by British intelligence to assist them in their investigation of a plot to drive a major oil company out of business.-Cast:* Henry Silva... |
Henry Silva |
Interpol Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation... . James Bond James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,... -like playboy character; in the fight scenes he is clearly not proficient in martial arts. He speaks in a lazy 'Beatnik Beatnik Beatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s and violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical... ' manner. |
| 1966 | 7 Women 7 Women 7 Women, also known as Seven Women, is a 1966 film drama made by MGM. It was directed by John Ford, produced by Bernard Smith and John Ford, from a screenplay by Janet Green and John McCormick, based on the story Chinese Finale by Norah Lofts. The music score was by Elmer Bernstein and the... |
Woody Strode Woody Strode Woodrow Wilson Woolwine "Woody" Strode was a decathlete and football star who went on to become a pioneering black American film actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960... and Mike Mazurki Mike Mazurki Mike Mazurki was an Austrian-born American actor and professional wrestler who appeared in over 100 movies. His towering 6' 5" presence and intimidating face usually got him roles playing tough guys, thugs, strong men, and gangsters.Mazurki was born as Mikhail Mazurkevych in Tarnopol, Galicia,... |
Notes |
The 'New Hollywood' and Post-classical cinema
After 1967, anti-miscegenation laws were repealed in the United States of America.| Film | |||
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| Year | Film | Actor/s | Notes |
| 1973 | Lost Horizon | John Gielgud John Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937... as Chang |
Notes |
| 1975 | One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing is a 1975 British comedy film, which is set in the early 1920s, about the theft of a dinosaur skeleton from the Natural History Museum. The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company. The title is a parody of the... |
Peter Ustinov Peter Ustinov Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter... and others |
Notes |
| 1976 | Murder by Death Murder by Death Murder by Death is a 1976 comedy film with a cast featuring Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker, and Estelle Winwood, written by Neil Simon and directed by Robert Moore.The plot is a spoof of... |
Peter Sellers Peter Sellers Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr... |
Peter Sellers Peter Sellers Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr... plays Inspector Sidney Wang, based on Charlie Chan Charlie Chan Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu... and appropriately accompanied by his adopted, Japanese son Willie (Richard Narita). Wang wears elaborate Chinese costumes, and his grammar is frequently criticized by the annoyed host. It could be argued that Sellers' role is in itself a parody of yellowface casting in earlier films. |
| 1978 | Revenge of the Pink Panther Revenge of the Pink Panther Revenge of the Pink Panther is the sixth film in the Pink Panther film series. Released in 1978, Revenge of was the last entry featuring series star Peter Sellers, who died in 1980... |
Peter Sellers Peter Sellers Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr... |
Inspector Clouseau had many disguises and this included the quintessential Chinaman stereotype. |
| 1980 | The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu is a 1980 comedy film, notable as the final film of Peter Sellers, David Tomlinson and John Le Mesurier. Pre-production began with Richard Quine as director. By the time the film entered production, Piers Haggard had replaced him. Peter Sellers handled the... |
Peter Sellers Peter Sellers Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr... |
Notes |
| 1980 | Flash Gordon Flash Gordon (film) Flash Gordon is a 1980 British/American science fiction film, based on the comic strip of the same name created by Alex Raymond. The film was directed by Mike Hodges and produced and presented by Dino De Laurentiis. It stars Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Topol, Max von Sydow, Timothy Dalton, Brian... |
Max von Sydow Max von Sydow Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more... as Emperor Ming |
Ming the Merciless is the sci fi version of Fu Manchu. |
| 1981 | Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen Charlie Chan Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu... |
Peter Ustinov Peter Ustinov Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter... as Charlie Chan |
In 1980, Jerry Shylock proposed a multi-million dollar comedy film, to be called Charlie Chan and the Dragon Lady. A group calling itself C.A.N. (Coalition of Asians to Nix) was formed, protesting the fact that two white actors, Peter Ustinov Peter Ustinov Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter... and Angie Dickinson Angie Dickinson Angie Dickinson is an American actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films, including Rio Bravo, Ocean's Eleven, Dressed to Kill and Pay It Forward, and starred on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman.-Early life:Dickinson, the second of... , had been cast in the primary roles. Others protested that the film itself contained a number of stereotypes; Shylock responded that the film was not a documentary. The film was released the following year as Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen and was an "abysmal failure." More successful was Wayne Wang's Chan is Missing (1982), which was a spoof of the older Chan films. An updated film version of the character was planned in the 1990s by Miramax; this new Charlie Chan was to be "hip, slim, cerebral, sexy and ... a martial-arts master", but the film did not come to fruition. |
| 1981 | Hardly Working Hardly Working Hardly Working is a comedy film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis. It was filmed in 1979, and was released in Europe in 1980 and in the United States on April 3, 1981 through 20th Century Fox.-Plot:... |
Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis... |
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| 1982 | The Year of Living Dangerously The Year of Living Dangerously The Year of Living Dangerously is a 1982 Peter Weir film adapted from the novel The Year of Living Dangerously by the author Christopher Koch. The story is about a love affair set in Indonesia during the overthrow of President Sukarno... |
Linda Hunt Linda Hunt Linda Hunt is an American film, stage and television actress. After making her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in Popeye , Hunt portrayed Billy Kwan, her breakthrough performance in The Year of Living Dangerously... as Billy Kwan |
The Year of Living Dangerously was entered into the 1983 Cannes Film Festival 1983 Cannes Film Festival - Jury :*William Styron *Henri Alekan *Yvonne Baby *Sergei Bondarchuk *Youssef Chahine *Souleymane Cissé *Gilbert de Goldschmidt *Mariangela Melato *Karel Reisz... where it was well-received by audiences and critics. Actress Linda Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress 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 actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the... . |
| 1982 | Marco Polo (TV miniseries) | Leonard Nimoy Leonard Nimoy Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels.... as Achmet |
American television mini-series |
| 1985 | Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, also released as Remo: Unarmed and Dangerous, is a 1985 American film. The action–adventure-thriller film featured Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley and Kate Mulgrew, as well as many guest roles... |
Joel Grey Joel Grey Joel Grey is an American stage and screen actor, singer, and dancer, best known for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film adaptation of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award and Golden Globe Award... as Chiun |
Film based on the Destroyer book series. The role garnered Joel Grey a Saturn Award Saturn Award The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within... and a second Golden Globe nomination for "Best Supporting Actor". |
| 1994 | Sabotage Sabotage (song) "Sabotage" is a song by American hip-hop group Beastie Boys, released as the first single from their fourth studio album Ill Communication.... |
Adam Yauch Adam Yauch Adam Nathaniel Yauch , , is a founding member of hip hop trio the Beastie Boys. He is frequently known by his stage name, MCA, and other pseudonyms such as Nathanial Hörnblowér.-Early life:... |
Beastie Boys Beastie Boys Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar.... music video. |
| 1999 | Galaxy Quest Galaxy Quest Galaxy Quest is a 1999 science-fiction comedy parody about a troupe of human actors who defend a group of aliens against an alien warlord. It was directed by Dean Parisot and written by David Howard and Robert Gordon. Mark Johnson and Charles Newirth produced the film for DreamWorks, and David... |
Tony Shalhoub Tony Shalhoub Anthony Marcus "Tony" Shalhoub is an American actor of Lebanese descent. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci on Wings and sleuth Adrian Monk on the TV series Monk. He has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work in Monk... as Fred Kwan / Tech Sergeant Chen |
Shalhoub (an American of Arab descent) plays an actor with a Korean family name; Shalhoub wears makeup which makes him look more East Asian |
21st Century
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Actor/s & Role | Notes |
| 2001 | Not Another Teen Movie Not Another Teen Movie Not Another Teen Movie is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Joel Gallen, released on December 14, 2001 by Columbia Pictures. It is a parody of teen movies which have accumulated in Hollywood over the last few decades... |
Samm Levine Samm Levine Samuel Franklin "Samm" Levine is an American television and film actor. He is known for his portrayal of Neal Schweiber on NBC's short-lived Freaks and Geeks and PFC Hirschberg in the hit 2009 film Inglourious Basterds... as Bruce |
A parody of racist stereotypes in teen films, most notably Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles Sixteen Candles Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall. It was written and directed by John Hughes.- Plot :... . |
| 2005 Australian television series | We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year is an Australian mockumentary TV series created, written and starring Chris Lilley and directed by Matthew Saville.It follows the story of five unique Australians, who have each made a large achievement... |
Chris Lilley Chris Lilley (comedian) -External links:****... as Ricky Wong |
Ricky Wong is a 23-year-old Chinese physics student who lives in the suburb of Wheelers Hill, Melbourne, Victoria. He is often exuberant and tells his colleagues that "Physics is Phun" and that they are in the "Wong" laboratory. This character is largely a vehicle for parodying the stereotypical "Chinese overachiever", or model migrant. |
| 2006 | Cloud 9 Cloud 9 (film) Cloud 9 is a 2006 American sports comedy film starring Burt Reynolds that was written and produced by Brett Hudson, Burt Kearns and Academy Award-winning producer Albert S. Ruddy... |
Paul Rodriguez Paul Rodríguez Paul Rodriguez is a Mexican-American stand-up comedian and actor.-Personal life:Rodriguez was born in Culiacán, Sinaloa, México to Mexican agriculture ranchers.. His family migrated to East Los Angeles, where he enlisted in the military; he was stationed in Iceland and Duluth, Minnesota... as Mr. Wong |
Cloud 9 |
| 2007 | Balls of Fury Balls of Fury Balls of Fury is a 2007 American sports comedy film starring Dan Fogler and Christopher Walken. It was directed by Ben Garant and was released on August 29, 2007.-Plot:... |
Christopher Walken Christopher Walken Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New... as Feng |
Feng is a parody of the yellow peril and Fu Manchu stereotype. |
| 2007 | Norbit Norbit Norbit is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Brian Robbins and starring Eddie Murphy and Thandie Newton. Produced by Davis Entertainment and Tollin/Robbins Productions, the film also stars Terry Crews, Clifton Powell, Lester "Rasta" Speight, Eddie Griffin, Katt Williams, Marlon Wayans, and... |
Eddie Murphy Eddie Murphy Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician.... as Mr. Wong |
For his portrayal Eddie Murphy received a Golden Raspberry Award. Worst Supporting Actor (Eddie Murphy; as Mr. Wong) |
| 2007 | Grindhouse | Nicolas Cage Nicolas Cage Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and... as Dr. Fu Manchu Fu Manchu Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century... |
Fake Trailer: Werewolf Women of the SS |
| 2007 | I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is a 2007 comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan, written by Barry Fanaro, and starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James as the title characters. The film was released on July 20, 2007, in the U.S., August 16, 2007, in Australia and on September 21, 2007, in the UK and... |
Rob Schneider Rob Schneider Robert Michael "Rob" Schneider is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live, Schneider has gone on to a successful career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow:... as the Asian minister and photographer |
Schneider is in fact one quarter Filipino Filipino people The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines .... by descent, but wore prosthetics for the role which were criticised as an offensive stereotype. Nominated for the Worst Supporting Actor Golden Raspberry Award but lost to Eddie Murphy. |
| 2008 | My Name Is Bruce My Name is Bruce My Name Is Bruce is a 2007 American comedy horror film, directed, co-produced by and starring B movie cult actor Bruce Campbell. The film was written by Mark Verheiden... |
Ted Raimi Ted Raimi Theodore "Ted"/"Half Ted" Raimi is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles as Lieutenant Tim O'Neill in seaQuest DSV and Joxer the Mighty in Xena: Warrior Princess/Hercules: The Legendary Journeys... as Wing |
Notes |
| 2009 | Crank: High Voltage | David Carradine David Carradine David Carradine was an American actor and martial artist, best known for his role as a warrior monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu, which later had a 1990s sequel series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues... as Poon Dong |
Poon Dong, played by the late David Carradine, is the head of the Chinese Triad. In Crank: High Voltage. The name of the character is a pun, being both a stereotypical Chinese-sounding name and slang for genitalia. |
| 2009 | Chanel - Paris - Shanghai A Fantasy - The Short Movie | Freja Beha, Baptiste Giabiconi Baptiste Giabiconi Baptiste Giabiconi is a French male model from Marignane, France. He is currently the male face of Chanel, Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld.-Career:In 2008, Giabiconi signed with DNA Model Management New York.... |
Karl Lagerfeld Karl Lagerfeld Karl Lagerfeld is a German fashion designer, artist and photographer based in Paris. He has collaborated on a variety of fashion and art related projects, most notably as head designer and creative director for the fashion house Chanel... Opened His Pre-Fall Show in Shanghai With a Film That Included Yellow Face. Lagerfeld defended this as a reference to old films. “It is an homage to Europeans trying to look Chinese,” he explained. “Like in ‘The Good Earth’, the people in the movie liked the idea that they had to look like Chinese. Or like actors in ‘Madame Butterfly’. People around the world like to dress up as different nationalities.” "It is about the idea of China, not the reality." Chinese persons played the maid, a courtesan and background characters. The film is currently on YouTube |
See also
- Racism in Film of the United States
- Stereotypes of East Asians in the Western world
Further reading
- Graham Russell Hodges, Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).
- Gina Marchetti, Romance and the "Yellow Peril" Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).
External links
- Hollywood Chinese Hollywood Chinese, a 2007 documentary film about the portrayals of Chinese men and women in Hollywood productions.
- "Yellowface: Asians on White Screens", by Yayoi Lena Winfrey, IM Diversity.com.
- "A Certain Slant." by Robert B. Ito, Bright Lights Film Journal.
- Asian American Media Watch.
- Asian Images in Film Introduction.