Sessue Hayakawa

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Kintaro Hayakawa (June 10, 1886 – November 23, 1973), also known as Sessue Hayakawa, was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol.

During the silent film boom of the 1910s and early 1920s, he was one of Hollywood's greatest actors.

Hayakawa was the first Asian descent actor to achieve fame as a leading man in the United States and Europe.

His "broodingly handsome" good looks and typecasting as a sexually dominant villain made him a heartthrob among American women during a period of racial discrimination, and he became one of Hollywood's first male sex symbols.

Hayakawa was a well-paid actor of his time, earning $3,500 a week in 1919 and $2 million from his own production firm from 1918 to 1920.

Hayakawa retired from Hollywood in 1922 and appeared on Broadway, Japan, and Europe for many years before he returned to Hollywood in Daughter of the Dragon (1931), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor due to increasing anti-Japanese sentiment and economic challenges.

Hayakawa appeared in more than 80 feature films, and three of his films (The Cheat, The Dragon Painter, and The Bridge on the River Kwai) are listed in the United States National Film Registry.

Personal life

Hayakawa married fellow Issei actor Tsuru Aoki, who appeared in many of his films on May 1, 1914. Ruth Noble, a fellow vaudeville performer in The Bandit Prince, had married Hayakawa. Alexander Hayes, Noble's son, was born. The couple divorced in 1929, but Hayakawa took custody of the baby. Sessue and Aoki adopted Yukio, shortened to Yukio; they raised and educated him in Japan. Yoshiko, an actor, and Fujiko, a dancer, followed them later. Aoki died in 1961.

Hayakawa had "an athlete's physique and agility" when they were physically fit. According to a 1917 Hayakawa article, he "is an expert fencer" and can swim like a fish. He is a natural horseman and plays a fast tennis racket. He is 5 foot seven and a half inches (171.45 cm) in height and weighs 157 pounds (71.21 kg).

Hayakawa was known for his discipline and martial arts abilities. Hayakawa performed a Mexican bandit on the Mojave Desert, with 500 cowboys as extras. The extras drank all night and into the next day on the first night of filming. Because no work was being carried out, Hayakawa challenged the group to a fight. Two guys stepped forward. "The first one really struck out at me," Hayakawa said. I grabbed his arm and sent him flying on his face across the rough ground. The second attempt at grapple, and I was compelled to flip him over my head and let him fall on his neck. He was knocked unconscious after the crash. Another cowboy is then disarmed in Hayakawa. The extras returned to work, amused by the way the young man handled the big bruising cowboys.

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Early life and career

On June 10, 1886, Hayakawa was born Kintaro Hayakawa (, Hayakawa Kintar) in Nanaura, Japan, and is now a part of a town named Chikura. He aspired to go to the United States and began studying in English from an early age. With some wealth, his father was the leader of a fishermen's union. He had five siblings.

Hayakawa's family wanted him to serve as an officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy from an early age. Nevertheless, when he swam to the bottom of a lagoon (he grew up in a shellfish diving club) in Etajima, he burst his eardrum and burst his eardrum. Due to his injury, he was unable to complete the navy physical. His father's loss caused shame and embarrasure, and this created a wedge between them. The tense friendship prompted Hayakawa to attempt seppuku (ritual suicide). Hayakawa constructed a shed on his parents' property and set the tone for the evening. He staggered himself more than 30 times in the abdomen, leaving his dog outside to uphold his family's samurai heritage. The barking dog brought Hayakawa's parents and his father broke down the door, saving his life.

Hayakawa recovered from the suicide attempt and enrolled at the University of Chicago to study political economics in order to satisfy his family's new ambition of becoming a banker. Although an undergraduate, he was reportedly a quarterback for the football team and was once suspended for using jujitsu to knock down a rival. Hayakawa graduated from the University of Chicago in 1912 and then made plans to return to Japan. Hayakawa travelled to Los Angeles and waited for a transpacific steamship. During his stay in Little Tokyo, he discovered the Japanese Theatre in Little Tokyo and became fascinated with acting and staging performances.

The above account, on the other hand, is undisputed, whether in part or in entirety. Hayakawa's return to acting was less dramatic, according to a professor of Japanese language and literature at UC San Diego Miyao; there is no evidence that Hayakawa attended University of Chicago or participated in sports there. Hayakawa's acting career instead took place in California as a dishwasher, waiter, ice cream vendor, and factory employee; his theatrical appearances were also a temporary pursuit.

Hayakawa had always intended to go to California to find work under his older brother's name in San Francisco, according to his father, but he later returned to Chicago to study for a year before returning to his original pursuits.

Hayakawa first used Sessue (, Sessh), which means "snow" and "continent" in Japanese. The Typhoon was one of Hayakawa's productions. Tsuru Aoki, a member of the acting troupe, was so impressed with Hayakawa's talent and enthusiasm that she begged film director Thomas H. Ince to attend the performance. Ince saw the movie and decided to turn it into a silent film starring the original cast. Hayakawa, a young man returning to Japan, attempted to dissuade Ince by requesting the then-astronomic fee of $500 a week, but Ince agreed to his request.

The Typhoon (1914) became a instant hit, and Ince, The Wrath of the Gods (1914), co-starring Hayakawa's new wife, Aoki, and The Sacrifice (1914) followed it. Jesse L. Lasky, Hayakawa's rising star, promised Hayakawa a deal, which he accepted, making him part of Famous Players-Lasky (now Paramount Pictures).

Later career

On Broadway and then in vaindeville—Hayakawa opened a Zen temple and research hall on New York's Upper West Side, as he returned to the United States in 1926 to appear on Broadway again—and later in vainville—Hayakawa opened a Zen temple and study hall. Hayakawa went back to Hollywood and sound film debut in Daughter of the Dragon (1931), opposite Chinese American performer Anna May Wong. When sound was added to movies, his accent did not go over well. In the German-Japanese co-production The Daughter of the Samurai (1937), Hayakawa performed a samurai. Hayakawa returned to France in 1937 to perform in Yoshiwara (1937), but during the German occupation of France in 1940, he was trapped in the country and alienated from his family. Hayakawa made few films in the years afterward, but he did a good job by selling his watercolor paintings. He met writer Jirhachi Satsuma, who was also trapped in France. Goldsea says he joined the French Resistance and assisted Allied flyers in World War II, but Hayakawa says he mostly supported the local Japanese people during the war and after. He lived nomadic lifestyle until 1950.

Humphrey Bogart's production firm based Hayakawa and offered him a job in Tokyo Joe in 1949. The American Consulate looked at Hayakawa's service during the war and discovered that he had no involvement in any way contributed to the German war effort. Hayakawa spent three years in Tokyo (1950), in which he portrayed real-life POW camp commander Lieutenant-Colonel Suga before returning to France.

Hayakawa's on-screen roles can be best portrayed as "the honorable villain," a figure exemplified by his portrayal of Colonel Saito in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). The film received the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Hayakawa received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor; he was also nominated for a Golden Globe. He referred to the position as the pinnacle of his career. Hayakawa was mostly outcast from acting after the film. During the years, he appeared on a handful of television shows and films, including his last appearance in the animated film The Daydreamer (1966).

Hayakawa converted himself to Zen Buddhism, became an approved Zen master, and wrote his autobiography Zen Showed Me the Way after retiring.

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