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Biography: Sessue Hayakawa

Best remembered by international audiences for his Oscar-nominated turn as Japanese POW camp commander Sato in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Sessue Hayakawa was one of the first Japanese actors to have a successful Hollywood career. Born Kintaro Hayakawa in the city of Chiba on the island of Honshu, he originally aspired to join the navy but was prevented by a partial hearing loss. Instead, he joined his uncle's acting troupe. At age 19, Hayakawa enrolled at the University of Chicago. Upon his return to Japan, he created the Japanese Imperial Company, an international touring troupe that came to the western U.S. in 1913. Hayakawa broke into films in 1914 after producer Thomas Ince, the father of the studio system, saw Hayakawa perform and signed him to a film contract. The first film in which he appeared was The Hateful God (1913). A young Hollywood had never seen the likes of an actor such as Hayakawa. Forgoing the tendency of other silent stars to broaden every movement, he brought an unprecedented subtlety to his exotic and initially sympathetic roles. Hayakawa became a star after appearing in The Typhoon (1914) with his wife, Tsuru Aoki. He played a villain in Cecil B. De Mille's The Cheat (1915). Again, he distinguished himself by giving a naturalistic performance. While he continued to try to play romantic roles, he was most frequently cast in villainous roles and occasionally produced films himself. In 1921, he penned a novel and a play. He also wrote a screenplay for The Swamp. By 1923, Hayakawa's popularity in Hollywood had waned and he moved to Europe to appear in films such as J'ai Tué (I Have Killed) (1924). He appeared in his first sound appearance in the Hollywood hriller Daughter of the Dragon (1931), playing Fu Manchu. The film did poorly and Hayakawa spent the '30s working in Europe. He returned to Hollywood in the late '40s and reestablished himself as a character actor in such films as Three Came Home (1950) and Swiss Family Robinson (1960). In the mid-'60s, Hayakawa retired from acting, moved to Japan, and became a Zen priest and a drama teacher. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide less

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Movies (24)
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The Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
Cast: Dorothy McGuire John Mills
Tags: Sea Adventure Family-Oriented Adventure Adventure
Length: 126min
None of the many cinemadaptations of Johan Wyss' The Swiss Family Robinson are as relentlessly enjoyable as this 1960 Disney feature. The film wastes no time getting down to business, with the shipwreck of the Robinson family occurring as the credits...
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The Daydreamer (1966)
Cast: Boris Karloff Terry-Thomas Burl Ives Margaret Hamilton Ray Bolger
Tags: Family Fantasy Fairy Tales & Legends Children's Fantasy
Length: 98min
Four stories from Hans Christian Andersen appear in The Daydreamer, a feature using the Animagic process that uses live action combined with stop-motion puppets. Included are "The Little Mermaid," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "Thumbelina," and "The...
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Hell to Eternity (1960)
Cast: David Janssen
Tags: War War Drama Biopic Drama
Length: 132min
This standard wartime drama is divided into three chronological segments and is based on the experiences of the real Guy Gabaldon (played as an adult by Jeffrey Hunter, and as a boy by Richard Eyer). In the first segment, Guy is a homeless waif...
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Green Mansions (1959)
Cast: Audrey Hepburn Lee J. Cobb Anthony Perkins
Tags: Romantic Adventure Adventure Drama Action Adventure Drama
Length: 101min
This omantic drama set in a Venezuelan jungle is based on a novel by W.H. Hudson about Rima, a mythical "bird-woman" and her love for Abel, a man running from political assassination. In this adaptation, Rima (Audrey Hepburn) is a real woman living...
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The Geisha Boy (1958)
Cast: Frank Tashlin Jerry Lewis
Tags: Slapstick Comedy
Length: 98min
Jerry Lewis, plays a third-rate USO magician named Gilbert Woolley, working the Far East circuit with his pet rabbit Harry. Nearly fired for accidentally humiliating haughty movie star Marie McDonald, Gilbert's career is salvaged by kindly Japanese...
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Three Came Home (1950)
Cast: Claudette Colbert
Tags: Docudrama Biopic War Drama POW Drama Drama War
Length: 106min
Based on the autobiographical book by Agnes Newton Keith, Three Came Home stars Claudette Colbert as Mrs. Keith. Trapped in Borneo during the Japanese invasion, Mrs. Keith and her British husband (Patric Knowles) are penned up in a prison camp along...
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Tokyo Joe (1949)
Cast: Humphrey Bogart
Tags: Crime Action Crime Drama Romantic Drama
Length: 88min
One of the less famous Humphrey Bogart films is this 1949 drama about post-war guilt and remembrance. Bogart plays U.S. airman and war hero Joe Barrett. During the war, he believes, his wife Trina (Florence Marly) died in a Japanese concentration...
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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Cast: William Holden Alec Guinness David Lean Jack Hawkins
Tags: War Drama Drama POW Drama Ensemble Film War
Length: 161min
The Bridge on the River Kwai opens in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma in 1943, where a battle of wills rages between camp commander Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) and newly arrived British colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness). Saito insists...
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Tomoyuki Yamashita (1953)
Length: 90min
The English-language title of this Japanese film is General Yamashita; in any language, the title character is played by Sessue Hayakawa. During WW II, Yamashita is assigned to the Philippines by his longtime antagonist Tojo. The General tries to be...
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Mask of Korea (1950)
Cast: Erich Von Stroheim
Tags: Drama Crime
Length: 61min
Released in the U.S. in 1950, Mask of Korea has the sort of title that suggests a tie-in with the then-raging Korean Conflict. Not true. The film was actually lensed in France in 1940, under the title Macao l'Enfer de Jeu. Silent-film veterans Erich...
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Biography: Sessue Hayakawa

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