Sessue Hayakawa

Acting

Sessue Hayakawa

Born 1889-06-10 · Nanaura, Chiba, Japan

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.

Acting credits

The Bridge on the River Kwai poster
7.8

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 officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

1957

Green Mansions poster
5.7

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. There he encounters Rima, the Bird Girl, an orphan living a life of nature, who is feared by a local jungle tribe.

Green Mansions

1959

The Battle poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Battle

1923

The Cheat poster
6.0

A venal, spoiled stockbroker's wife impulsively embezzles $10,000 from the charity she chairs and desperately turns to a Burmese ivory trader to replace the stolen money.

The Cheat

1915

Swiss Family Robinson poster
6.8

After being shipwrecked, the Robinson family is marooned on an island inhabited only by an impressive array of wildlife. In true pioneer spirit, they quickly make themselves at home but soon face a danger even greater than nature: dastardly pirates.

Swiss Family Robinson

1960

Forfaiture poster
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 therefore is forced to borrow money from Prince Lee-Lang. The Prince immediately begins to flirt and make advances towards Denise. Advances she rejects.

Forfaiture

1937

Hell to Eternity poster
6.3

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 foster family is interned at the Manzanar camp for Japanese Americans, while he enlists in the Marines, where his ability to speak Japanese becomes a vital asset. During the Battle of Saipan, he convinces 800 Japanese to surrender after their general commits suicide.

Hell to Eternity

1960

Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema poster
4.3

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 the rampant sexuality of early Hollywood through movie clips and reminiscences by stars of the era. Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Marlene Dietrich and others relate tales of the artistic freedom that led to the draconian Production Code, which governed content from 1934 to 1968. Diane Lane narrates.

Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema

2007

House of Bamboo poster
6.2

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 and Japanese locals.

House of Bamboo

1955

Hashimura Togo poster
NR

After an accusation of a breach of diplomacy committed by his brother, Hashimura Togo bears the burden and leaves Japan in disgrace for the United States where he enters the employ of Mrs. Reynolds as a butler. Togo discovers that Mrs. Reynolds' daughter Corinne is in love with Dr. Garland but is being coerced into marrying Carlos Anthony who, having seized all of her deceased father's funds, now promises to save the family from financial ruin in return for Corinne's hand in marriage. Enlisting the aid of a reporter, Hashimura succeeds in proving Anthony's deception in time to stop the marriage, freeing Corinne to marry Garland. After a series of misadventures, his name is cleared and Hashimura returns to his sweetheart in Japan.

Hashimura Togo

1917

Alien Souls poster
NR

A Japanese maiden is pursued by an unscrupulous American young man who falsely believes her to have great riches.

Alien Souls

1916

The Geisha Boy poster
6.4

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 orphan boy.

The Geisha Boy

1958

The Motherland Far Far Away poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Motherland Far Far Away

1950

Tokyo Joe poster
6.1

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 and the authorities.

Tokyo Joe

1949

Three Came Home poster
6.7

Borneo, 1941, during World War II. When the Japanese occupy the island, American writer Agnes Newton Keith is separated from her husband and imprisoned with her son in a prison camp run by the enigmatic Colonel Suga.

Three Came Home

1950

47 Vendettas poster
NR

The legendary tale of the forty-seven samurai who seek vengeance against the man who caused their master's death.

47 Vendettas

1953

Tempête sur l'Asie poster
9.0

An adventurer tries to seize oil deposits in Mongolia .

Tempête sur l'Asie

1938

Patrouille blanche poster
7.0

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 their profits.

Patrouille blanche

1942

His Birthright poster
6.2

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 submitting the documents to the gang, he realizes what he has done and claims the documents back. A struggle follows.

His Birthright

1918

Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood poster
5.7

A history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.

Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood

2019

The Honorable Friend poster
NR

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, she is married to Makino in a civil ceremony. However, Kayosho intends to keep Toki-ye for himself. This angers Goto, another employee. Kayosho was betrothed to Goto's niece, Hana. One day Kayosho is found dead in a pool.

The Honorable Friend

1916

An Arabian Knight poster
7.0

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 lascivious pasha Fred Jones. All this brouhaha is actually a dream experienced by Hall.

An Arabian Knight

1920

No artwork available
9.0

Running Hollywood is a comedy short.

Running Hollywood

1932

Forbidden Paths poster
NR

Sato (Sessue Hayakawa) faithfully works for importer James Thornton (James Neill). When the old man dies, he leaves his daughter Mildred (Vivian Martin) in Sato's care. Sato loves the girl, but as he is Japanese he cannot hope to ever marry her (at least not in the racially prejudiced era of the early 1900s). Besides, Mildred loves Harry Maxwell (Tom Forman), who was raised alongside her.

Forbidden Paths

1917

Behind the camera

The Battle poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Battle

1923

His Birthright poster
6.2

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 submitting the documents to the gang, he realizes what he has done and claims the documents back. A struggle follows.

His Birthright

1918

The First Born poster
7.0

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 son relieves his unhappiness. He adores little Chan Toy even though he finds nothing to like about his wife.

The First Born

1921

Black Roses poster
9.0

Japanese architect Yoda is hired as groundskeeper for retired criminal Benson Burleigh.

Black Roses

1921

Where Lights Are Low poster
5.7

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 study in the United States, the young man promises his beloved that they two will be together soon. Having finished university, one day T'Su Wong Shih visits the market of San Francisco, and at an auction of slaves, he finds Quan Yin auctioned. To save her, he agrees to pay a price of five thousand dollars but, not possessing the full amount, he makes a deal with the auctioneer for a three-year extension in which he must work to raise the money needed to rescue the girl. T'Su Wong Shih has no great success until he manages to win a large sum in a lottery. However, Quan Yin is now in danger because a Chinese gangster wants to have it and, to do that, goes to threaten the auctioneer who is forced to comply. T'Su Wong Shih is then engaged in a struggle to liberate his beloved: he defeats the gangster, rescues Quan Yin and claims her as his...

Where Lights Are Low

1921

No artwork available
7.0

The Japanese debut film of silent-era star Sessue Hayakawa, in which he not only starred but directed.

The Sun Rises from the East

1932