Sessue Hayakawa

This article is about the actor and matinee idol from Japan. For the United States Senator from California, see S. I. Hayakawa.
Sessue Hayakawa
早川 雪洲
Hayakawa, 1918
Born
早川 金太郎 (Hayakawa Kintarō)

(1886-06-10)June 10, 1886
Minamibōsō, Chiba, Empire of Japan
DiedNovember 23, 1973(1973-11-23) (aged 87)
Tokyo, Japan
OccupationActor
Years active1914–1966
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1914; died 1961)​
[1]
Children3
Signature (Japanese)
早川 雪洲, Hayakawa's signature in Japanese, from an index card
Signature

Kintarō Hayakawa (Japanese: 早川 金太郎, Hepburn: Hayakawa Kintarō, June 10, 1886 – November 23, 1973), known professionally as Sessue Hayakawa (早川 雪洲, Hayakawa Sesshū), was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading man in the United States and Europe. His "broodingly handsome"[2] good looks and typecasting as a sexually dominant villain made him a heartthrob among American women during a time of racial discrimination, and he became one of the first male sex symbols of Hollywood.[3][4][5]

After withdrawing from the Japanese naval academy and attempting suicide at 18, Hayakawa attended the University of Chicago, where he studied political economics in accordance with his wealthy parents' wish that he become a banker. Upon graduating, he traveled to Los Angeles to board a scheduled ship back to Japan, but tried acting in Little Tokyo. Hayakawa impressed Hollywood figures and was signed to star in The Typhoon (1914). He made his breakthrough in The Cheat (1915), and became famous for his roles as a forbidden lover. Hayakawa was one of the highest paid stars of his time, earning $5,000 per week in 1915, and $2 million per year through his own production company from 1918 to 1921.[6][7][8] Because of rising anti-Japanese sentiment and business difficulties,[9] Hayakawa left Hollywood in 1922 and performed on Broadway and in Japan and Europe for many years before making his Hollywood comeback in Daughter of the Dragon (1931).[10]

Of his talkies, Hayakawa is probably best known for his role as Kuala, the pirate captain in Swiss Family Robinson (1960) and Colonel Saito in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.[11] Hayakawa starred in over 80 feature films, and three of his films (The Cheat, The Dragon Painter, and The Bridge on the River Kwai) stand in the United States National Film Registry.[12][13][14]

  1. ^ Chuong, Chung (1999). Distinguished Asian Americans: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood. p. 111. ISBN 978-0313289026.
  2. ^ Saltz, Rachel (2007-09-07). "Sessue Hayakawa: East And West, When The Twain Met". The New York Times.
  3. ^ Miyao 2007, pp. 1–3, 191, 227, 281
  4. ^ Prasso, Sheridan (2006). The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, and Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient. PublicAffairs. p. 124. ISBN 978-1586483944.
  5. ^ Warner, Jennifer (2014). The Tool of the Sea: The Life and Times of Anna May Wong. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. p. 8. ISBN 978-1502403643.
  6. ^ "Sessue Hayakawa: The Legend". Goldsea. p. 2.
  7. ^ Miyao 2007, pp. 334, 325
  8. ^ Miyao 2007, p. 176
  9. ^ Miyao 2007, p. 227
  10. ^ Miyao 2007, p. 263
  11. ^ Nakagawa, Orie (2012). Sesshū! : sekai o miryōshita Nihonjin sutā Hayakawa Sesshū. Kodansha. ISBN 978-4062179157.
  12. ^ Eaton, William J. (15 December 1993). "Out of the Vault and Onto the Film Registry's List : Movies: Some of the Library of Congress' newly selected classics and popular favorites will make a nationwide tour next September". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  13. ^ Tsutakawa, Mayumi (2 March 2017). "STG presents Sessue Hayakawa in The Dragon Painter". International Examiner. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  14. ^ "Complete list of films admitted". CNN. 18 November 1997. Archived from the original on 2011-01-31. Retrieved 25 November 2019.