Rudolph Valentino. Douglas Fairbanks. Sessue Hayakawa. What do these men have in common? All reigned as dashing matinee idols during the silent era. But while Valentino and Fairbanks usually won the girl’s heart by the end, Hayakawa’s Japanese heritage almost always prevented him from doing the same; in fact, he became the first Asian actor to achieve stardom in Hollywood – and he did so while playing the villain.
I first witnessed Hayakawa’s star power in Cecil B. DeMille’s THE CHEAT (‘15). The ferocity of his actions on screen, and—I’ll admit it—his devastatingly good looks, stunned and entranced me. Not recognizing his name, I decided to investigate and was quickly intrigued by Hayakawa’s life and career in Hollywood.
Born in Japan in 1886, Hayakawa’s journey took him to the United States, where he made his film debut in 1914. (Though many sources—including Hayakawa himself—claim he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of Chicago, the school has no records showing he attended.) The following year, his role as a wealthy businessman in THE CHEAT propelled him to fame, albeit in an unusual way. In the movie, Hayakawa loans a socialite (Fannie Ward) $10,000… in exchange for sex. When she repays the money and tries to back out of the physical part of their deal, he refuses, and, in a shocking scene, literally brands her as his property.
Caucasian women went wild over Hayakawa’s performance. Stephen Gong, Executive Director of the Center for Asian American Media, noted the widely-cited reasoning for that in a 2008 interview: “The idea of the rape fantasy, forbidden fruit, all those taboos of race and sex – it made him a movie star.” However, THE CHEAT and the striking reaction Hayakawa’s understated style and brazen brutality elicited was fraught with the racial prejudices and sexual mores of the time, and the film didn’t fare well with everyone. Japanese moviegoers and publications in America decried Hayakawa for taking on a villainous role that adversely affected how they were viewed and treated. Indeed, in his 1960 book
Zen Showed Me the Way, Hayakawa recalled, “I was indignantly accused of casting a slur on my nationality,” something other Asian actors, like Anna May Wong, were charged with too, even though Hollywood rarely offered them non-stereotypical parts.
The actor’s star ascended quickly; in fact, a 1917 theater advertisement marketed a “mammoth triple feature program,” placing Hayakawa on the same level of stardom as Charlie Chaplin and Western icon William S. Hart. After Hayakawa’s contract with Jesse Lasky ended in 1918, he formed Haworth Pictures Corporation, which gave him more power over his career and enabled him to undertake a wider variety of roles. Haworth churned out almost 20 films from 1918-1922, and at the helm, Hayakawa could funnel his creative talents through the entire filmmaking process; in addition to acting, he produced and wrote select features, and he’s also said to have contributed to Haworth productions’ design, editing and directing. Hayakawa often appeared alongside Caucasian actresses in these pictures, but even when he played the hero, miscegenation laws basically barred him from a blissful finale. A rare happy ending during this period came in THE DRAGON PAINTER (‘19), which Hayakawa co-starred in with his wife, Japanese actress Tsuru Aoki. Hayakawa’s studio proved so successful that he commanded an astounding $7,500 a week in 1920, the equivalent of almost $100,000 a century later.
But at the top of his game, Hayakawa left Hollywood. The reasons for his 1922 exit remain murky, but different sources credit business issues, mounting xenophobia/discrimination and more. In an odd statement from a 1957
Los Angeles Times interview, Hayakawa plainly stated he relocated because, “I met a treacherous man. He took out a $1,000,000 policy on my life. And I believe he tried to kill me to collect.”
Mysteries aside, the actor spent the next few decades working on stage and screen across Europe and Japan, settling for a while in France, where he resided during WWII. Though Hayakawa mostly remained abroad the rest of his life, he occasionally returned to America, including in 1931 to act in his first Hollywood talkie, DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON, and the late 1950s. During the latter period, he appeared in his most famous film, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (‘57), resulting in a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.
While researching Hayakawa’s life, I uncovered a good amount of conflicting and/or unverified information, some even proliferated by the actor himself. Indeed,
Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom author Daisuke Miyao has said, “I think the life of Hayakawa as a star was always a process of creating his own myth.” But a little bit of confabulation probably serves the enduring enigma of an enchanting matinee idol well, does it not?
