Sessue Hayakawa

Sessue Hayakawa (1918)

Announcement for the film The Call of the East (1917). Hayakawa is on the far right of the picture. The film has been announced for the audience in California in Chinese script.

Sessue Hayakawa ( Japanese 早川 雪 洲 , Hayakawa Sesshū ; born June 10, 1889 in Nanaura (today: Minamibōsō ), Chiba Prefecture , Japan as Kintarō Hayakawa ( 早川 金太郎 , Hayakawa Kintarō ); † November 23, 1973 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese actor.

Sessue Hayakawa was the first East Asian film actor to achieve the rank of star in the United States .

Life

Sessue Hayakawa was the second son of a family that belonged to the Japanese sword nobility. His father was a senior provincial official and at his request, the young Hayakawa sought a career as an officer in the Japanese Navy , which he was unable to complete because of a diving accident which left him with hearing problems. Disappointed, Hayakawa tried traditionally to commit seppuku , but lost consciousness and was found and healed despite serious injuries. He then turned to Zen Buddhism and tried to become a Zen priest for several months. After he came into contact with Americans during a relief effort for an American steamer that had run into shallows in Tokyo Bay, he developed a desire to travel to the United States. His father allowed him to do so under the condition that he should study political economy there. Hayakawa studied in Chicago and graduated with a bachelor's degree. Before choosing to travel back to Japan or to stay in the United States, he joined a stage company that toured the United States in 1913 . There he was discovered by a producer for the New York Motion Picture Company, Thomas Harper Ince , who gave him the lead roles in Reginald Barker's films The Wrath of the Gods and The Typhoon (both 1914).

These two films made Hayakawa an instant star. In 1915 he attracted further attention with his appearance in Cecil B. DeMille's jealous drama The Cheat , in which he plays a wealthy Japanese who emphasizes his sexual possession claims on a white woman ( Fannie Ward ) whom he has lent money to literally brands them. For millions of American women - including white Americans - this role made Hayakawa a romantic idol. However, the film was received as a scandal by the anti-racialists and by the Japanese-American public; the latter was dismayed by DeMille's unrealistic portrayal of a Japanese person. Hayakawa's popularity, however, remained unchallenged and in the 1910s he took top salaries that only white top stars like Douglas Fairbanks , Charlie Chaplin and John Barrymore received. In many films Jack Holt appeared in the role of his opponent, who competes with Hayakawa for the favor of a white woman who repeatedly z. B. was portrayed by Florence Vidor , Myrtle Stedman , Doris Pawn , Jane Novak and Helen Jerome Eddy .

In 1921 Sessue Hayakawa founded her own production company, the Hayakawa Feature Play Company, which only produced four films. In the 1920s, which brought many migrants to the United States after World War I , racism grew stronger in the United States. Hayakawa's films stopped selling and his career hit rock bottom. He moved to Japan in search of a new audience, but did not find work there. In France he was able to shoot the film La bataille in 1923 and two films followed in the United Kingdom in 1924 .

He did not make a comeback until 1931 with Lloyd Corrigan's film Daughter of the Dragon , in which, alongside Anna May Wong and Warner Oland, he met the lover of the daughter of the Chinese super-criminal Dr. Fu Manchu plays. Daughter of the Dragon was the first sound film for Hayakawa to reveal that he spoke English with a heavy accent. In 1932, Hayakawa first took a film engagement in Japan. In 1937 he played the main male role in the drama The Daughter of the Samurai , staged by Arnold Fanck and Mansaku Itami , a German-Japanese co-production with which the two Axis powers wanted to express their ties in the cultural field.

Sessue Hayakawa then went back to France, where he took part in Max Ophüls ' love film Yoshiwara (1937). In Marcel L'Herbier's film Forfaiture (also 1937), a remake of the film The Cheat , he again played the role of the cruel Japanese lover that had made him a world star 22 years earlier. Hayakawa spent the Second World War in Paris because, as a Japanese, he was tolerated by the German occupiers there, but claims he would be afraid for his life if he went back to Japan. His wife and children stayed in Japan and had no contact with them for several years.

In 1949 Hayakawa returned to Hollywood after he had received a special visa from the Americans due to some criticism of German during the war. In Stuart Heisler's thriller Tokyo Joe (1949) he appeared next to Humphrey Bogart . He played alongside Claudette Colbert in the successful war drama Drei returned home (1950) . In 1950, three Japanese productions followed, and after a five-year hiatus, Hayakawa was hired by Samuel Fuller for a supporting role in his film noir House of Bamboo . In 1957 Columbia Pictures gave him the role in which he is best known to today's audiences: that of the Japanese commander Saito in David Lean's prisoner of war drama The Bridge on the Kwai .

At that time, Hayakawa was already 68 years old and then only appeared in front of the camera irregularly. He had one last major success in 1960 with the role of the pirate captain in the adventure film Swiss Family Robinson . In 1966 he retired from the film business and returned to Japan, where he became a Zen priest and gave acting lessons. He died of a brain thrombosis in Tokyo at the age of 84.

Sessue Hayakawa was married to the Japanese actress Tsuru Aoki (1892-1961) since May 1, 1914 , with whom he repeatedly stood in front of the camera in the 1910s.

Prices

Sessue Hayakawa received the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor for his appearance in Die Brücke am Kwai . He also received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for this role , but both awards went to Red Buttons for his role in Sayonara . Hayakawa was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 1645 Vine Street).

Filmography (selection)

Advert (1919)

• 1914: O Mimi San
• 1914: The Courtship of O San
• 1914: The Geisha
• 1914: The Ambassador's Envoy
• 1914: The Wrath of the Gods / The Destruction of Sakura-Jima or The Wrath of the Gods - Lord Yamaki
• 1914: A Tragedy of the Orient
• 1914: A Relic of Old Japan
• 1914: Star of the North
• 1914: The Curse of the Caste
• 1914: The Village 'Neath the Sea
• 1914: The Death Mask
• 1914: The Typhoon - Tokorama
• 1914: The Hateful God (unsecured)
• 1914: The Vigil
• 1914: The Last of the Line
• 1915: After Five - Oki, the Valet
• 1915: The Famine - Horisho
• 1915: The Chinatown Mystery - Yo Hong
• 1915: The Clue - Nogi
• 1915: The Secret Sin - Lin Foo
• 1915: The Cheat - Hishuru Tori / Haka Arakau
• 1915: Temptation - Opera Admirer
• 1916: Alien Souls - Sakata
• 1916: The Honorable Friend - Makino
• 1916: The Soul of Kura San - Toyo
• 1916: The Victoria Cross - Azimoolah
• 1917: Each to His Kind - Rhandah
• 1917: The Bottle Imp - Lopaka
• 1917: The Jaguar's Claws - El Jaguar
• 1917: Forbidden Paths - Sato
• 1917: Hashimura Togo - Hashimura Togo
• 1917: The Call of the East - Arai Takada
• 1917: The Secret Game - Nara-Nara
• 1918: Banzai - The American General
• 1918: The Hidden Pearls - Tom Garvin
• 1918: The Honor of His House / Honor of the House - Count Ito Onato
• 1918: The White Man's Law - John A. Genghis
• 1918: The Bravest Way - Kara Tamura
• 1918: The City of Dim Faces - Jang Lung
• 1918: His Birthright - screenplay, actor: Yukio
• 1918: The Temple of Dusk - Akira
• 1918: United States Fourth Liberty Loan Drive / An Untitled Liberty Loan Film - Himself
• 1919: The Gray Horizon
• 1919: The Courageous Coward - Suki Iota
• 1919: A Heart in Pawn - Tomaya
• 1919: His Debt - Goto Mariyama
• 1919: The Man Beneath - Dr. Chindi Ashutor
• 1919: The Dragon Painter - Tatsu, the Dragon Painter
• 1919: Bonds of Honor - Yamashito / Sasamoto
• 1919: The Illustrious Prince - Prince Maiyo
• 1919: The Tong Man - Luk Chen
• 1920: The Beggar Prince - Nikki / Prince
• 1920: The Brand of Lopez - Vasco Lopez
• 1920: The Devil's Claim - Akbar Khan / Hassan
• 1920: Li Ting Lang / Traditions Altar - Li Ting Lang
• 1920: To Arabian Knight - Ahmed
• 1921: The First Born - Producer, Actor: Chan Wang
• 1921: Black Roses - Producer, Actor: Yoda
• 1921: Where Lights Are Low - Producer, Actor: T Su Wong Shih
• 1921: The Swamp - producer, screenplay, actor: Wang
• 1922: Five Days to Live - Tai Leung
• 1922: The Vermilion Pencil - Tse Chan / The Unknown / Li Chan
• 1922: Night Life in Hollywood / The Shriek of Hollywood - himself
• 1923: La bataille
• 1924: Sen Yan's Devotion - Sen Yan
• 1924: The Great Prince Shan - Prince Shan
• 1924: The Danger Line - Marquis Yorisaka
• 1924: J'ai tué! / Fidélité / I Have Killed - Hideo the antiquarian
• 1929: Sessue Hayakawa in 'The Man Who Laughed Last'
• 1931: Daughter of the Dragon - Ah Kee
• 1931: Around the World in 80 Minutes with Douglas Fairbanks / Around the World in 80 Minutes / Around the World with Douglas Fairbanks - he himself
• 1932: Running Hollywood
• 1932: Taiyo wa higashi yori / The Sun Rise from the East - Director, Actor: Kenji
• 1937: The daughter of the samurai / Atarashiki tsuchi / The New Earth / The New Soil - Iwao Yamato
• 1937: Yoshiwara - Isamo, Kuli
• 1937: Forfaiture / The Cheat - Prince Hu-Long
• 1938: Storm over Asia - Le prince Ling
• 1939: The Macau / Macau gambling den , l'enfer du jeu / Gambling Hell / Mask of Korea - Ying Tchaï
• 1942: Patrouille blanche - Halloway
• 1943: Soleil de minuit, Le - Matsui
• 1943: Malaria - Saïdi
• 1946: Cabaret du grand large, Le - Professeur Wang
• 1947: Quartier chinois - Tchang
• 1949: Tokyo Joe - Baron Kimura
• 1950: Three returned home - Colonel Suga
• 1950: Harukanari haha ​​no kuni / The Motherland Far Far Away - Joe Hayami
• 1950: Re mizeraburu: kami to akuma / Les Miserables: Gods and Demons
• 1950: Re mizeraburu: kami to jiyu no hata
• 1955: House of Bamboo - Inspector Kito
• 1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai / The Bridge on the River Kwai - Col. Saito
• 1958: The Geisha Boy - Mr. Sikita
• 1959: Green Mansions - Runi
• 1960: Hell to Eternity - Gen. Matsui
• 1960: Jungle of 1000 Dangers (Swiss Family Robinson) - Kuala, Pirate Chief
• 1961: The Big Wave - The Old Man
• 1966: The Daydreamer - The Mole (voice)

Television appearances

• 1958: Kraft Television Theater: The Sea Is Boiling Hot episode of a television series
• 1958: Studio One: Kurishiki Incident Episode in a television series - Sato
• 1958: Wagon Train: The Sakae Ito Story Episode of a television series - Sakae Ito
• 1961: Here's Hollywood (1961) episode of a television series - himself
• 1963: Route 66: Two Strangers and an Old Enemy (episode of a television series) - Takasuka

literature

• Sessue Hayakawa: The Samurai's Son. The life of Sessue Hayakawa. Henry Goverts Verlag, Stuttgart 1963.
• Donald Kirihara: The Accepted Idea Displaced. Stereotype and Sessue Hayakawa. In: Daniel Bernardi (Ed.): The Birth of Whiteness. Race and the Emergence of US Cinema. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ 1996, ISBN 0-8135-2277-3 , pp. 81-99.

Web links

• Sessue Hayakawa in theInternet Movie Database(English)
• silentera.com (English)
• The legend (English)
• silentgents.com photos