Sessue Hayakawa filmography

The following lists the film appearances of the actor and film producer Sessue Hayakawa (1886–1973). Hayakawa was one of the first Asian actors to gain great fame and success in the United States. He starred in both English-language and Japanese-language films. His career peaked during the silent film period but continued on and eventually thrived in the talkie era, culminating with an Academy Award-nominated performance in The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957.

Advertisement in Moving Picture World, May 1919.

Producer

• The First Born (1921)
• Black Roses (1921)
• Where Lights Are Low (1921)
• The Swamp (1921)

Director

• La Bataille (1923) (co-director)
• Taiyo wa higashi yori (The Sun Rise from the East) (1932)

Writer

• His Birthright (1918)
• The Swamp (1921)

Appearances as himself

• United States Fourth Liberty Loan Drive (1918)
• Night Life in Hollywood (1922)
• Around the World in 80 Minutes with Douglas Fairbanks (1931)
• Running Hollywood (1932)

Television appearances

• Kraft Television Theatre (1958)
• Studio One (1958)
• Wagon Train (1958) as Sakae Ito
• The Steve Allen Show (1959)
• Here's Hollywood (1961, 1962)
• Route 66 (1963) as Takasuka
• Taikōki (1965) as Takeda Shingen

Early work

• O Mimi San (1914) as Yorotomo
• The Courtship of O San (1914) as Shotoku
• The Geisha (1914) as Takura
• The Ambassador's Envoy (1914) as Kamuri
• A Tragedy of the Orient (1914) as Kato
• A Relic of Old Japan (1914) as Koto
• The Curse of Caste (1914) as Kato
• The Village 'Neath the Sea (1914) as Red Elk
• Star of the North (1914)
• The Death Mask (1914) as Running Wolf
• The Hateful God (1914)
• Nipped (1914) as Taro Kamura
• The Vigil (1914) as Kenjiro
• Mother of the Shadows (1914) as Running Elk
• The Last of the Line (1914) as Tiah - Gray Otter's Son

Thomas Ince Films

• The Typhoon (1914) as Tokorama
• The Wrath of the Gods (1914)
• The Sacrifice (1914)

Famous Player Lasky Films

• After Five (1915) as Oki - the Valet
• The Famine (1915) as Horisho
• The Chinatown Mystery (1915) as Yo Hong
• The Clue (1915) as Nogi
• The Secret Sin (1915) as Lin Foo
• The Cheat (1915) as Hishuru Tori (original release) / Haka Arakau
• Temptation (1915) as Opera Admirer
• Alien Souls (1916) as Sakata
• The Honorable Friend (1916) as Makino
• The Soul of Kura San (1916) as Toyo
• The Victoria Cross (1916) as Azimoolah
• Each to His Kind (1917) as Rhandah
• The Bottle Imp (1917) as Lopaka
• The Jaguar's Claws (1917) as El Jaguar
• Forbidden Paths (1917) as Sato
• Hashimura Togo (1917) as Hashimura Togo
• The Call of the East (1917) as Arai Takada
• The Secret Game (1917)
• The Hidden Pearls (1918) as Tom Garvin
• The Honor of His House (1918) as Count Ito Onato
• The White Man's Law (1918) as John A. Genghis
• The Bravest Way (1918) as Kara Tamura
• The City of Dim Faces (1918) as Jang Lung
• His Birthright (1918) as Yukio
• Banzai (1918) as The American General
• The Temple of Dusk (1918) as Akira

Haworth Pictures Corporation

Sessue Hayakawa is costumed as the Prince of the Island of Desire in a publicity still for the 1920 silent fantasy film The Beggar Prince.

• A Heart in Pawn (1919) as Tomaya
• The Courageous Coward (1919) as Suki Iota
• His Debt (1919) as Goto Mariyama
• The Man Beneath (1919) as Dr. Chindi Ashutor
• The Gray Horizon (1919) as Yamo Masata
• The Dragon Painter (1919) as Tatsu - the Dragon Painter
• Bonds of Honor (1919) as Yamashito / Sasamoto
• The Illustrious Prince (1919) as Prince Maiyo
• The Tong Man (1919) as Luk Chen
• The Beggar Prince (1920) as Nikki / Prince
• The Brand of Lopez (1920) as Vasco Lopez
• The Devil's Claim (1920) as Akbar Khan / Hassan
• Li Ting Lang (1920) as Li Ting Lang
• An Arabian Knight (1920) as Ahmed
• The First Born (1921) as Chan Wang
• Black Roses (1921) as Yoda
• Where Lights Are Low (1921) as Tsu Wong Shih
• The Swamp (1921) as Wang

European, American and Japanese Films

• Five Days to Live (1922) as Tai Leung
• The Vermilion Pencil (1922, USA) as Tse Chan / The Unknown / Li Chan
• La Bataille (1923) as Le Marquis Yorisaka
• The Great Prince Shan (1924) as Prince Shan
• The Danger Line (1924) as Marquis Yorisaka
• Sen Yan's Devotion (1924) as Sen Yan
• J'ai tué! (1924) as Hideo - l'antiquaire japonais
• The Man Who Laughed Last (1929)
• Daughter of the Dragon (1931, USA (Paramount Pictures)) as Ah Kee
• Taiyo wa higashi yori (1932) as Kenji
• Bakugeki hikôtai (1934)
• Tojin Okichi (1935) as Townsend Harris
• Kuni o mamoru mono: Nichiren (1935) as Nichiren
• The Daughter of the Samurai (1937, German-Japanese) as Iwao Yamato
• Yoshiwara (1937, French) as Ysamo, Kuli
• The Cheat (1937) as Prince Hu-Long
• Storm Over Asia (1938, French) as Le prince Ling
• Patrouille blanche (1942) as Halloway
• Macao, l'enfer du jeu (1942) as Ying Tchaï
• Malaria (1943) as Saïdi
• Le Soleil de minuit (1943) as Matsui
• Le Cabaret du grand large (1946) as Professeur Wang
• Quartier chinois (1947) as Tchang

Final Films

• Tokyo Joe (1949) as Baron Kimura
• Three Came Home (1950) as Colonel Suga
• Harukanari haha no kuni (1950) as Joe Hayami
• Re mizeraburu: kami to akuma (1950)
• Re mizeraburu: kami to jiyu no hata (1950)
• Onna kanja himon - Akô rôshi (1953) as Sakon Tachibana
• Kurama Tengu to Katsu Kaishû (1953) as Awanokami Katsu
• Nihon yaburezu (1954)
• House of Bamboo (1955) as Inspector Kito
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) (for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) as Colonel Saito
• The Geisha Boy (1958) as Mr. Sikita
• Green Mansions (1959) as Runi
• Hell to Eternity (1960) as Gen. Matsui
• Swiss Family Robinson (1960) as Kuala, Pirate Chief
• The Big Wave (1961) as The Old Man
• The Daydreamer (1966) as The Mole (voice)
• Junjô nijûsô (1967) as Tajima (final film role)

Bibliography

• Miyao, Daisuke (2007). Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-3969-4. OCLC 470908395.