Sessue Hayakawa
Sessue Hayakawa (June 10, 1889 – November 23, 1973) was a Japanese and American Issei (Japanese immigrant) actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. He was one of the highest paid stars of his time; making $5,000 a week in 1915, and $2 million a year via his own production company during the 1920s. He starred in over 80 movies and has two films in the U.S. National Film Registry. His international stardom transitioned both silent films and talkies.
Of his English-language films, Hayakawa is probably best known for his role as Colonel Saito in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai, for which he received a nomination for Academy Award Best Supporting Actor in 1957. He also appeared as the pirate leader in Disney's Swiss Family Robinson in 1960. In addition to his film acting career, Hayakawa was a theatre actor, film and theatre producer, film director, screenwriter, novelist, martial artist, and an ordained Zen master. Description above from the Wikipedia article Sessue Hayakawa, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 3.113 |
| Birthday | 1889-06-10 |
| Place of Birth | Nanaura, Chiba, Japan |
| Also Known As | 早川雪洲, Kintarō Hayakawa, 早川 金太郎, |
1957
The Bridge on the River Kwai
7.8/2074
The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence...
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The Bridge on the River Kwai
1955
House of Bamboo
6.1/62
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen...
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House of Bamboo
1916
The Honorable Friend
0/0
Makino works for Kayosho, a Japanese curio dealer in America. To reward Makino's dedication, Kayosho sends for Toki-ye, a picture bride. Upon arrival,...
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The Honorable Friend
1915
Temptation
0/0
Opera singer Renee Dupree is in love with struggling composer Julian who falls very seriously ill. She goes to impresario Mueller for the money Julian...
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Temptation
1918
The City of Dim Faces
4/2
Chinese merchant Wing Lung and Elizabeth Mendall, an American, marry and have a son named Jang Lung. Because Elizabeth wants Jang Lung to be raised as...
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The City of Dim Faces
1922
Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 12
0/0
Another entry in the popular one-reel series.
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Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 12
1960
Hell to Eternity
6.6/16
Based on the story about Guy Gabaldon, a Los Angeles Hispanic boy raised in the 1930s by a Japanese-American foster family. After Pearl Harbor, his fo...
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Hell to Eternity
1958
The Geisha Boy
6.4/46
Gilbert Wooley is a second-rate magician who is sent to entertain the troops in the pacific. During his time in Japan he becomes attached to a little...
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The Geisha Boy
1937
Forfaiture
6.6/6
Denise Moret joins her husband, Pierre, in Mongolia where he works as a civil engineer. One night she loose a lot of money on the roulette and therefo...
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Forfaiture
1959
Green Mansions
5.6/24
A young Venezuelan idealist flees his native land to escape a revolution. Hoping to find peace, he goes to the mountains and the forests of the Amazon...
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Green Mansions
1960
Swiss Family Robinson
6.9/303
After being shipwrecked, the Robinson family is marooned on an island inhabited only by an impressive array of wildlife. In true pioneer spirit, they...
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Swiss Family Robinson
1949
Tokyo Joe
6.069/36
An American veteran returns to Tokyo to try to pick up the threads of his pre-World War II life there, but finds himself squeezed between criminals an...
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Tokyo Joe
1915
The Cheat
6/62
A venal, spoiled stockbroker's wife impulsively embezzles $10,000 from the charity she chairs and desperately turns to a Burmese ivory trader to repla...
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The Cheat
1942
Patrouille blanche
0/0
An Oriental villain named Halloway is called in by wealthy oil interests who want to destroy a dam project for hydroelectric power that may threaten t...
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Patrouille blanche
1943
Le Soleil de minuit
0/0
Going to take up his post in Moukden, the forest engineer finds in a trainer from the cabaret "the midnight sun" a Russian princess, Armide, whom he o...
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Le Soleil de minuit
1943
Malaria
0/0
A colonial wife carries on an affair with a French officer, but the wife's native servant may have overheard their plan to leave Africa and return to...
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Malaria
1946
Le Cabaret du Grand Large
0/0
Superintendent Thomas is investigating a cabaret owner with suspicious actions.
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Le Cabaret du Grand Large
1947
Quartier chinois
0/0
In a Far Eastern town, a settling of accounts between Western and Asian opium traffickers draws the attention of the police.
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Quartier chinois
1920
The Devil's Claim
0/0
A Persian novelist living in New York throws aside the woman who loves him, and she gets an American woman to help get him back. Meanwhile, the noveli...
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The Devil's Claim
1919
The Dragon Painter
6.4/18
A wild man and genius becomes a master painter's disciple, but loses his divine gift when he finds love.
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The Dragon Painter
1950
Three Came Home
6.7/23
Borneo, 1941, during World War II. When the Japanese occupy the island, American writer Agnes Newton Keith is separated from her husband and imprisone...
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Three Came Home
1931
Daughter of the Dragon
5.1/18
At her Chinese father's bidding, a woman goes to murder an enemy and meets a Scotland Yard detective.
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Daughter of the Dragon
1914
The Wrath of the Gods
6.2/11
An American sailor falls in love with a fisherman's daughter and convinces her that Jesus is more powerful than the gods who have cursed her.
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The Wrath of the Gods
1959
John Gunther's High Road
10/1
John Gunther, a great traveler in many parts of the globe, presented on the American ABC channel the documentary program "John Gunther's High Road" fr...
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John Gunther's High Road
1919
The Tong Man
5.7/8
An opium smuggler is marked for murder in this story of the Chinese Mafia.
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The Tong Man
2019
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
5.6/5
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
1914
The Last of the Line
6.7/6
Sioux leader Chief Gray Otter sends his son Tiah to the white man's school so that he can become a great leader. The son returns home drunk, disappoin...
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The Last of the Line
1937
Yoshiwara
8/1
Based on a novel by Maurice Dekobra, the film is set in the Yoshiwara, the red-light district of Tokyo, in the nineteenth century. It depicts a love t...
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Yoshiwara
1958
The Rise and Fall of a Jungle Giant
0/0
A behind-the-scenes look at the building of the bridge in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and the preparations for its destruction.
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The Rise and Fall of a Jungle Giant
1914
The Typhoon
0/0
Tokoramo, a Japanese diplomat on a mission to Paris, begins a love affair with Helene, a chorus girl, who subsequently rejects her American fiancé, Ri...
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The Typhoon
1966
The Daydreamer
4.8/9
A young Hans Christian Andersen goes in search of knowledge in the Garden of Paradise in order to make his studies easier. Each time he falls asleep,...
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The Daydreamer
1932
Running Hollywood
0/0
Running Hollywood is a comedy short.
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Running Hollywood
1914
The Death Mask
2.5/1
A Native American warrior travels to a faraway tribe to find and defend a woman that haunts his dreams.
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The Death Mask
1937
The Daughter of the Samurai
5.3/3
Teruo gets caught up in a conflict between tradition and modernism after returning to Japan from Germany after having spent a number of years there st...
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The Daughter of the Samurai
1915
The Clue
0/0
Russian brothers Count Boris and Alexis Rabourdin obtain a Japanese coastline defense map and plan to sell it to German agents in London. In America,...
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The Clue
1950
The Motherland Far Far Away
0/0
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The Motherland Far Far Away
1917
The Secret Game
5.5/4
In the office of Major Northfield, the quartermaster of the Pacific Coast, a leak has been discovered which may endanger the safety of American transp...
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The Secret Game
1918
His Birthright
5.2/4
Yukio is illegal in the United States and is used by a gang of spies for their plans. Yukio must steal secret documents from an admiral. When he's sub...
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His Birthright
1953
悲劇の将軍 山下奉文
0/0
When Japan entered into the great tragedy that was unforgettable, the general general of the history of the Ming Dynasty, hokudai Yamashita, left the...
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悲劇の将軍 山下奉文
1950
Les Miserables I: God and the Devil
0/0
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Les Miserables I: God and the Devil
1950
Les Miserables II: Banner of Love and Freedom
0/0
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Les Miserables II: Banner of Love and Freedom
1964
The Frozen Moment
0/0
Created for the "Esso World Theater" series of films in 1964, it features excerpts from "Bugaku," "Gagaku," "Noh, " and "Kabuki" scenes performed by t...
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The Frozen Moment
1917
The Bottle Imp
0/0
Lopaka, a poor Hawaiian fisherman, falls in love with Kokua, a young girl of royal blood. Her father refuses to let him marry her, though, unless Lopa...
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The Bottle Imp
1942
Gambling Hell
6.4/8
In Macao, where places of pleasure and arms trafficking are concentrated, a tragedy opposes an adventurer and his daughter whom he has brought up in i...
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Gambling Hell
1919
The Courageous Coward
0/0
Sessue Hayakawa was making the transition from Asian villain to sympathetic hero in this picture. The plot is a combination of racial stereotypes that...
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The Courageous Coward
1919
The Man Beneath
6/2
The renown Hindu scientist, Dr. Chindi Ashutor, who has conquered plague in India, visits Scotland and falls in love with Kate Erskine, whose sister M...
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The Man Beneath
1938
Tempête sur l'Asie
0/0
An adventurer tries to seize oil deposits in Mongolia .
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Tempête sur l'Asie
1917
The Call of the East
0/0
While visiting Alan, who works in Tokyo, she attends a festival with her Japanese maid while wearing a Japanese kimono. There she meets the wealthy Ar...
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The Call of the East
1924
The Great Prince Shan
0/0
An assassinated Lord's daughter refuses to marry a Chinese prince but agrees to be his mistress.
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The Great Prince Shan
1953
47 Vendettas
0/0
The legendary tale of the forty-seven samurai who seek vengeance against the man who caused their master's death.
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47 Vendettas
1921
Screen Snapshots (Series 1, No. 20)
0/0
Intimate views of the movie stars of the Silent Era, at work and play; featuring Sessue Hayakawa, Lillian Gish and others.
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Screen Snapshots (Series 1, No. 20)
1916
The Victoria Cross
0/0
Maj. Ralph Seton is a British army officer stationed in Cawnpore, India, when the Sepoy Rebellion--a mutiny of Indian soldiers in the Brtitish army in...
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The Victoria Cross
1923
The Battle
0/0
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The Battle
1967
Lover's Duet
0/0
A melodrama about a talented singer who finally makes her debut. A remake of the 1939 film of the same name.
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Lover's Duet
1961
The Big Wave
0/0
Yukio, a farm boy, and Toru, a fisherboy, live in a small Japanese village that is periodically threatened by a volcano on one side and tidal waves on...
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The Big Wave
1918
The Temple Of Dusk
1/1
Japanese poet Akira living in Tokyo, loves American Ruth Vale, who was placed in the care of Akira's father when her missionary parents died. Ruth ret...
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The Temple Of Dusk
1915
The Secret Sin
0/0
Blanche Sweet has a dual role in this picture -- she plays twin sisters, Edith, a sweet, normal young girl, and Grace, who is a drug fiend. They live...
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The Secret Sin
1921
Where Lights Are Low
5/2
The Chinese prince T'Su Wong Shih loves Quan Yin, the daughter of a gardener, but his uncle wants him to marry a girl of his own class. Leaving to stu...
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Where Lights Are Low
1921
The First Born
0/0
Loey Tsing, the first love of Chan Wang, is sold into slavery by her father. Although Chan marries another, he still loves Loey; only the birth of a s...
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The First Born
1920
An Arabian Knight
0/0
Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa is cast as an ancient Egyptian donkey boy in An Arabian Knight. The humble Hayakawa rescues high-born Lillian Hall from...
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An Arabian Knight
1919
Bonds of Honor
0/0
In this picture, Sessue Hayakawa is in a dual role, playing twin brothers. One of them, Yamashiro is serious and hardworking, while the other, Sadao,...
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Bonds of Honor
1917
Forbidden Paths
0/0
Sato (Sessue Hayakawa) faithfully works for importer James Thornton (James Neill). When the old man dies, he leaves his daughter Mildred (Vivian Marti...
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Forbidden Paths
1918
Hidden Pearls
0/0
Hawaiian prince Tom Garvin (Sessue Hayakawa) receives an American college education and falls in love with Enid Benton (Florence Vidor).
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Hidden Pearls
1918
The Honor of His House
0/0
Marooned on a desert island, Dr. Robert Farlow and wealthy toxicologist Count Ito Onato both fall in love with Lora, a beautiful Japanese-American gir...
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The Honor of His House
1920
Li Ting Lang
0/0
In a day and age when interracial marriages were considered taboo, film star Sessue Hayakawa rarely got the girl in his pictures. The issue of prejudi...
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Li Ting Lang
1921
The Swamp
0/0
Mary and her son Buster live in a single room in the slums of the city, having been deserted by their husband and father, wealthy Spencer Wellington....
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The Swamp
1918
The White Man's Law
0/0
Japanese leading man Sessue Hayakawa stars as John A. Ghengle, the Oxford-educated son of an Arab chieftain. Entering into a business partnership with...
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The White Man's Law
1921
Black Roses
0/0
Japanese architect Yoda is hired as groundskeeper for retired criminal Benson Burleigh.
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Black Roses
1914
O Mimi san
0/0
A silent melodrama from the very first series of American films to use a Japanese cast. The scenes of the story are laid in Japan during the last rev...
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O Mimi san
1924
Sen Yan’s Devotion
0/0
A disguised servant of a dying Japanese prince saves articles of succession from a rival faction.
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Sen Yan’s Devotion
2007
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
4.9/4
Before the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines t...
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Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
1965
The Love Goddesses
6.3/22
This insightful documentary features some of the major and most beautiful actresses to grace the silver screen. It shows how the movie industry change...
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The Love Goddesses
1924
I Have Killed
0/0
Hideo, an antiques dealer in Tokyo, is accused of killing his best friend. In a dramatic court-room hearing, the truth will be revealed.
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I Have Killed
1931
Around the World with Douglas Fairbanks
0/0
With the advent of sound, the world's leading screen idol, Douglas Fairbanks, experienced a downturn in his fortunes. His thin, reedy voice was not su...
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Around the World with Douglas Fairbanks
1919
A Heart in Pawn
0/0
Toyama wants to go to college in America but his alcoholic father won't supply the funds. He gets the money to go, however, from Sada, whom he has mar...
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A Heart in Pawn
1918
The Bravest Way
0/0
Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa was one of the most popular leading men in American silent films-this despite the fact that orientals were traditionall...
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The Bravest Way
1918
Banzai
0/0
A Liberty Bond fundraising short.
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Banzai
1922
The Vermilion Pencil
0/0
The Vermilion Pencil is a 1922 American silent drama film directed by Norman Dawn, and produced and distributed by Robertson–Cole. It is based on the...
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The Vermilion Pencil
1922
Night Life in Hollywood
0/0
A picture depicting the engrossing adventures of a small town youth in Hollywood and showing the intimate home life of some of the screen's greatest s...
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Night Life in Hollywood
1915
After Five
0/0
Thinking that he has lost both his money and his beloved Nora's in a bad investment young New Yorker Ted Ewing arranges for his own murder. Suddenly h...
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After Five
2002
Swiss Family Robinson: Adventure in the Making
0/0
A look behind the scenes at Walt Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
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Swiss Family Robinson: Adventure in the Making
1960
Escape to Paradise/Water Birds
0/0
A behind-the-scenes show on the filming of Swiss Family Robinson on the West Indian island of Tobago. Then the True Life Adventure Water Birds.
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