James Shigeta
James Saburo Shigeta (June 17, 1929 – July 28, 2014) was an American actor, singer, and musician of Japanese descent. He was noted for his roles in The Crimson Kimono (1959), Walk Like a Dragon (1960), Flower Drum Song (1961), Bridge to the Sun (1961), Die Hard (1988), and Mulan (1998). In 1960, he won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, along with three other actors.
In his early career, Shigeta often played romantic male lead roles, which were almost nonexistent for an actor of Asian descent during his time, making him a trailblazer in Asian American representation in media. The Goldsea Asian-American Daily magazine listed him as one of the "Most Inspiring Asian-Americans Of All Time".
Before his Hollywood career he found success as a pop singer and performer abroad, especially in Japan and Australia.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 11.124 |
| Birthday | 1929-06-17 |
| Place of Birth | Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, USA |
| Also Known As | James Saburo Shigeta, 繁田三郎, |
2000
Brother
7.097/471
A Japanese Yakuza gangster's deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his broth...
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Brother
1988
Die Hard
7.8/11241
NYPD cop John McClane's plan to reconcile with his estranged wife is thrown for a serious loop when, minutes after he arrives at her offices Christmas...
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Die Hard
1998
Mulan
7.908/9732
To save her father from certain death in the army, a young woman secretly enlists in his place and becomes one of China's greatest heroines in the pro...
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Mulan
1961
Flower Drum Song
6.1/31
A young woman arrives in San Francisco's Chinatown from Hong Kong with the intention of marrying a rakish nightclub owner, unaware he is involved with...
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Flower Drum Song
1997
Drive
6.1/136
A prototype enhanced human, on the run from Chinese-hired hit men, hooks up with a dread-locked bystander, and the two of them elude their pursuers na...
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Drive
1959
The Crimson Kimono
6.6/52
A Los Angeles detective and his Japanese partner woo an artist while solving a stripper's murder.
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The Crimson Kimono
1974
The Yakuza
7.1/186
American private eye Harry Kilmer returns to Japan to rescue a friend's kidnapped daughter from the clutches of the Yakuza.
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The Yakuza
2009
The People I've Slept With
4.9/16
The People I've Slept With - a promiscuous woman who finds herself with an unplanned pregnancy and needs to figure out who the baby daddy is...NOW. An...
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The People I've Slept With
1974
The Questor Tapes
5.65/20
Project Questor is brainchild of the genius Dr. Vaslovik: he developed plans to build an android super-human. Although he's disappeared and half of hi...
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The Questor Tapes
1968
Escape to Mindanao
0/0
Two American POWs break out of a Japanese jungle prison camp with their captors' secret decoding device and try to reach freedom despite being slowed...
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Escape to Mindanao
1966
Paradise, Hawaiian Style
5.1/45
Blacklisted by the major airlines for endlessly chasing female staff, pilot Rick Richards returns to Hawaii to set up a helicopter charter company wit...
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Paradise, Hawaiian Style
1990
Home from the Eastern Sea
0/0
This documentary covers the story of Chinese-, Japanese-, and Filipino-Americans in Washington state, from their first arrivals, to the discrimination...
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Home from the Eastern Sea
1975
Matt Helm
0/0
In this pilot film for the later series, a former secret agent, now a private investigator, is hired to protect a beautiful film star and gets involve...
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Matt Helm
1982
Tomorrow's Child
0/0
The wife of a research geneticist agrees to the experimental procedure of a 'test-tube baby' by having her fetus brought to full term in a glass jar i...
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Tomorrow's Child
1964
Carol for Another Christmas
5.5/22
Daniel Grudge, a wealthy industrialist and fierce isolationist long embittered by the loss of his son in World War II, is visited by three ghosts on C...
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Carol for Another Christmas
1973
Lost Horizon
5.4/37
While escaping war-torn China, a group of Europeans crash in the Himalayas, where they are rescued and taken to the mysterious Valley of the Blue Moon...
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Lost Horizon
1967
Death Walks in Laredo
6.5/2
Whitaker Selby, Lester Kato, and Etienne Devereaux, three eccentric gunmen, discover they are brothers. Their father left them all a mine located in L...
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Death Walks in Laredo
1961
Cry for Happy
5/6
Army photographers on leave in Japan take over a geisha house.
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Cry for Happy
1961
Bridge to the Sun
6.8/13
Tells the true story of American Gwen Terasaki, who falls in love with, then marries a Japanese diplomat. When World War II breaks out they encounter...
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Bridge to the Sun
2019
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
5.5/6
A history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
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Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
1968
Nobody's Perfect
5.5/2
This military service comedy chronicles the misadventures of the U.S.S. Bustard in Japan. The crew has stolen a Buddha statue from a Japanese village,...
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Nobody's Perfect
1982
The Renegades
7.6/4
In this drama, undercover investigators are recruited from the streets to prevent arms smugglers from getting their weapons to street gangs.
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The Renegades
1994
Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die
6.5/11
The Harts find themselves in the middle of a dangerous murder plot, but it isn't clear if the plot it a famous author's fictional murder-mystery, or a...
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Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die
1990
China Cry
6/7
Young Sung Neng Yee, who is brought as part of a wealthy Chinese family. She is eager to become part of Mao Tze Tung's "new society", but soon becomes...
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China Cry
1976
Midway
6.6/289
This war drama depicts the U.S. and Japanese forces in the naval Battle of Midway, which became a turning point for Americans during World War II.
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Midway
1999
Qigong: Ancient Chinese Healing for the 21st Century
0/0
This documentary introduces viewers to qigong, a 5,000-year-old method of cultivating and circulating the life energy called qi. It relates some of th...
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Qigong: Ancient Chinese Healing for the 21st Century
2006
The Slanted Screen
10/1
From silent film star Sessue Hayakawa to Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle, the Slanted Screen examines the portrayal Asian men in film and televisio...
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The Slanted Screen
1969
Operation Heartbeat
0/0
Lawsuits fly when a widow believes a gifted surgeon allowed her husband to die so his heart could be transplanted into the doctor's ailing mentor and...
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Operation Heartbeat
1968
Manila, Open City
8.2/2
War drama set in the closing stages of World War Two. As Allied Forces are nearing the defeat of the Japanese Army in Manila, the Japanese Empire's so...
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Manila, Open City
1995
Midnight Man
5.1/8
When the police start a crackdown on Yakuza activities, a killer starts killing the cops forcing a martial-arts officer to fight back.
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Midnight Man
1960
Walk Like a Dragon
5/2
California, 1870s. The cowboy Lincoln 'Linc' Bartlett finds out there's a slave auction of Chinese women in San Francisco and he intervenes and purcha...
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Walk Like a Dragon
2007
Hollywood Chinese
0/0
Hollywood Chinese is a captivating look at cinema history through the lens of the Chinese American experience. Directed by triple Sundance award-winni...
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Hollywood Chinese
1969
The Young Lawyers
0/0
Attorney Michael Cannon leaves his Boston law firm to become director of the Neighborhood Law Office, where he guides three law students on a case inv...
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The Young Lawyers
1988
Slaying the Dragon
0/0
A highly critical documentary about the history of Asian-American actresses in Hollywood. Features interviews with pioneering Asian-American actresses...
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Slaying the Dragon
1980
Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb
5.5/2
The story of Col. Paul Tibbets and his crew who flew the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, bringing World War II t...
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Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb
1994
Cage II: The Arena of Death
3.1/8
After being tricked into thinking his best friend, and caretaker is dead, Vietnam Vet, and mentally disabled person has no other choice but to enter T...
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Cage II: The Arena of Death
1996
Space Marines
3.3/11
Space pirates, led by diabolical Colonel Fraser, take over a cargo ship carrying anti-matter explosive and an important official. Space marines, led b...
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Space Marines
1979
Samurai
0/0
Lee Cantrell, a young San Francisco attorney by day, at night becomes a samurai warrior, and battles a crazed multi-millionaire who is planning to des...
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Samurai
1989
Cage
2.6/7
A GI in Vietnam saves his buddy's life, but in the process is shot in the head. The injury results in brain damage to the point where he basically has...
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Cage
1976
The Killer Who Wouldn't Die
0/0
After his wife is killed in a mysterious bomb explosion, a cop leaves the department and starts a charter boat service. When an undercover agent who i...
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The Killer Who Wouldn't Die
2022
Yorktown: A Time to Heal
0/0
Having escaped capture by the Klingons, a damaged Starfleet reconnaissance probe crashes undetected on the planet Pahl III. Hikaru Sulu, serving as fi...
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Yorktown: A Time to Heal
1967
The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Chinese Junk
6/3
The Hardy Boys become owners of the Chinese junk Hai Hau. They head to New York City and go spelunking to break up a gang of criminals.
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