James Shigeta (Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, June 17, 1929 - Beverly Hills, California, SAD, July 28, 2014)
James Saburo Shigeta was an American TV and film actor and singer, and one of the first Asian-American actors who had the opportunity to play leading roles in Hollywood films. He was born on Hawaii in a family of Japanese origin. After graduating from high school, he enrolled to the New York University and studied English language. For a short time he worked as a singer in clubs under the pseudonym Guy Brion, and afterward joined the marines for two years and entertained the American troupes during the Korean War. Even though he did not speak Japanese, upon leaving the marines he stayed in Japan and became a successful singer under his own name and performed on the radio, TV, film and theatreHe published many records and he was called the “Japanese Frank Sinatra". In 1959, he returned to the US and performed with Shirley MacLaine in Las Vegas in the review “Holiday in Japan”. He made his feature film debut in Sam Fuller’s The Crimson Kimono (1959) as the Japanese-American police detective who finds himself in a love triangle during a homicide investigation. In 1960, he won the Golden Globe as Best New Actor (sharing it with George Hamilton, Troy Donahue and Barry Coe) for this role. Afterwards he starred as a Chinese in the western Walk like a Dragon (1960) by James Clavell and as an American marine together with Glenn Ford and Donald O'Connor in the romantic comedy Cry for Happy (1961) by George Marshall. In the biopic Bridge to The Sun (1961) he portrayed a Japanese diplomat who falls in love with an American. He had the leading role in the excellent adaptation of the Broadway musical Flower Drum Song (1961). These two roles were important also because he was one of the first Asian-American actors who had the opportunity to be the romantic hero in Hollywood productions of that time. Before and even afterwards, Asian actors only got smaller, stereotypical roles or Asian characters were portrayed by white actors. Due to racial discrimination in the film industry, he never became a real Hollywood star, and after the film Flower Drum Song, he never had another leading role in a movie. He acted in TV series, and in the 1960’s in television films such as A Carol for Another Christmas (1964) by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, in the musical with Elvis Presley Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) by Michael D. Moore and the comedy Nobody’s Perfect (1968) by Alan Rafkin. Fom the 1970’s he mostly acted on television and refused all the roles he considered to be degrading for Asians. He played a monk in the dystopic musical Lost Horizon (1973) by Charles Jarrott and the Japanese admiral in the big-budget war drama Midway (1976). Throughout his career he acted in many TV series such as Perry Mason (1965), Hawaii Five-O (1968), Mission: Impossible (1970, 1989), Kung Fu (1974-1975), Little House on the Prairie (1977), The Love Boat (1983), Magnum, P.I. (1983, 1986), Dragnet (1989), Murder, She Wrote (1987, 1992) and Beverly Hills, 90210 (1999). He is well-known to the younger audience for his role in the action film Die Hard (1988). Some of his more important films are the action drama Drive (1997), voiceover for the animated film Mulan (1998) and Takeshi Kitano’s film Brother (2000). In 2006, he took part in the documentary by Jeff Adachi The Slanted Screen (2006) that deals with the stereotypical portrayal of Asians. His last feature film was the romantic comedy The People I've Slept With (2009) by Quentin Lee.
Filmography:
The People I've Slept With (2009)
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005) (TV series, 1 episode, voice)
Threat Matrix (2004) (TV series, 1 episode)
A Ribbon of Dreams (2002)
Brother (2000)
Beverly Hills, 90210 (1999) (TV series, 3 episodes)
Mulan (1998) (voice)
Drive (1997)
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (1997) (TV series, 2 episodes)
Cybill (1996) (TV series, 1 episode)
Space Marines (1996)
Midnight Man (1995)
Cage II (1994)
Babylon 5 (1994) (TV series, 1 episode)
Renegade (1993-1994) (TV series, 2 episodes)
Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die (1994) (TV)
SeaQuest DSV (1994) (TV series, 2 episodes)
Murder, She Wrote (1987-1992) (TV series, 2 episodes)
China Cry: A True Story (1990)
Dragnet (1989) (TV series, 1 episode)
Jake and the Fatman (1989) (TV series, 1 episode)
A Peaceable Kingdom (1989) (TV series, 1 episode)
Cage (1989)
Mission: Impossible (1989) (TV series, 1 episode)
Die Hard (1988)
Simon & Simon (1984-1988) (TV series, 3 episodes)
The Hitchhiker (1987) (TV series, 1 episode)
Magnum, P.I. (1983-1986) (TV series, 2 episodes)
The Family Martinez (1986) (TV)
Airwolf (1985) (TV series, 1 episode)
Matt Houston (1984) (TV series, 1 episode)
Masquerade (1983) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Love Boat (1983) (TV series, 2 episodes)
T.J. Hooker (1983) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Renegades (1982) (TV)
Strike Force (1982) (TV series, 1 episode)
Tomorrow's Child (1982) (TV)
The Greatest American Hero (1982) (TV series, 1 episode)
Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb (1980) (TV)
Samurai (1979) (TV)
Fantasy Island (1979) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Rockford Files (1978) (TV series, 1 episode)
Police Woman (1978) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977) (TV series, 1 episode)
Little House on the Prairie (1977) (TV series, 1 episode)
Arthur Hailey's the Moneychangers (1976) (TV series, 4 episodes)
Once an Eagle (1976) (mini TV series)
The Streets of San Francisco (1976) (TV series, 2 episodes)
Midway (1976)
The Killer Who Wouldn't Die (1976) (TV)
S.W.A.T. (1976) (TV series, 1 episode)
Ellery Queen (1976) (TV series, 1 episode)
Matt Helm (1975) (TV series, 1 episode)
Khan! (1975) (TV series, 1 episode)
Kung Fu (1974-1975) (TV series, 2 episodes)
The Yakuza (1974)
Emergency! (1974) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Questor Tapes (1974) (TV)
Lost Horizon (1973)
Medical Center (1969-1972) (TV series, 8 episodes)
Ironside (1969-1971) (TV series, 2 episodes)
Mission: Impossible (1970) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Young Lawyers (1969) (TV series, 1 episode)
Hawaii Five-O (1968) (TV series, 1 episode)
Escape to Mindanao (1968) (TV)
It Takes a Thief (1968) (TV series, 1 episode)
Nobody's Perfect (1968)
Manila, Open City (1968)
The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Chinese Junk (1967)
Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966)
3 pistole contro Cesare (1966)
I Spy (1965) (TV series, 1 episode)
Ben Casey (1964-1965) (TV series, 1 episode)
Perry Mason (1965) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Bing Crosby Show (1965) (TV series, 1 episode)
A Carol for Another Christmas (1964) (TV)
The Outer Limits (1963-1964) (TV series, 2 episodes)
The Lieutenant (1964) (TV series, 1 episode)
Burke's Law (1964) (TV series, 1 episode)
Dr. Kildare (1963) (TV series, 1 episode)
Naked City (1962) (TV series, 1 episode)
Playdate (1961) (TV series, 1 episode)
Flower Drum Song (1961)
Alcoa Premiere (1961) (TV series, 1 episode)
Bridge to the Sun (1961)
Cry for Happy (1961)
Walk Like a Dragon (1960)
The Crimson Kimono (1959)