Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-10 of 10
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Sessue Hayakawa was born in Chiba, Japan. His father
was the provincial governor and his mother a member of an aristocratic
family of the "samurai" class. The young Hayakawa wanted to follow in
his father's footsteps and become a career officer in the Japanese
navy, but he was turned down due to problems with his hearing. The disappointed Hayakawa decided to make his career on the stage. He
joined a Japanese theatrical company that eventually toured the United
States in 1913. Pioneering film producer
Thomas H. Ince spotted him and
offered him a movie contract. Roles in
The Wrath of the Gods (1914)
and The Typhoon (1914) turned
Hayakawa into an overnight success. The first Asian-American star of
the American screen was born.
He married actress Tsuru Aoki on May 1, 1914.
The next year his appearance in
Cecil B. DeMille's sexploitation
picture The Cheat (1915) made Hayakawa
a silent-screen superstar. He played an ivory merchant who has an
affair with the Caucasian Fannie Ward, and
audiences were "scandalized" when he branded her as a symbol of her
submission to their passion. The movie was a blockbuster for Famous
Players-Lasky (later Paramount), turning Hayakawa into a romantic idol
for millions of American women, regardless of their race. However, there
were objections and outrage from racists of all stripes, especially
those who were opposed to miscegenation (sexual contact between those
of different races). Also outraged was the Japanese-American community,
which was dismayed by DeMille's unsympathetic portrayal of a member of
their race. The Japanese-American community protested the film and
attempted to have it banned when it was re-released in 1918.
The popularity of Hayakawa rivaled that of Caucasian male movie stars
in the decade of the 1910s, and he became one of the highest-paid
actors in Hollywood. He made his career in melodramas, playing
romantic heroes and charismatic heavies. He co-starred with the biggest
female stars in Hollywood, all of whom were, of course, Caucasian. His
pictures often co-starred Jack Holt as
his Caucasian rival for the love of the white heroine (Holt would later
become a top action star in the 1920s),
Hayakawa left Famous Players-Lasky to go independent, setting up his
own production company, Haworth Pictures Corp. Through the end of the
decade Haworth produced Asian-themed films starring Hayakawa
and wife Tsuru Aoki that proved very popular. These movies elucidated
the immigrant's desire to "cross over" or assimilate into society at
large and pursue the "American Dream" in a society free of racial
intolerance. Sadly, most of these films are now lost.
With the dawn of a new decade came a rise in anti-Asian sentiment,
particularly over the issue of immigration due to the post-World War I
economic slump. Hayakawa's films began to perform poorly at the box
office, bringing his first American movie career to an end in 1922. He
moved to Japan but was unable to get a career going. Relocating to France,
he starred in La bataille (1923), a
popular melodrama spiced with martial arts. He made
Sen Yan's Devotion (1924) and
The Great Prince Shan (1924)
in the UK.
In 1931 Hayakawa returned to Hollywood to make his talking-picture
debut in support of Anna May Wong
in
Daughter of the Dragon (1931).
Sound revealed that he had a heavy accent, and his acting got poor
reviews. He returned to Japan before once again going to France, where
he made the geisha melodrama
Yoshiwara (1937) for director
Max Ophüls. He also appeared in a remake of
"The Cheat" called Forfaiture (1937),
playing the same role that over 20 year earlier had made him one of the
biggest stars in the world.
After the Second World War he took a third stab at Hollywood. In 1949
he relaunched g himself as a character actor with
Tokyo Joe (1949) in support of
Humphrey Bogart, and
Three Came Home (1950) with
Claudette Colbert. Hayakawa reached
the apex of this, his third career, with his role as the martinet POW
camp commandant in
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957),
which brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Suporting Actor.
His performance as Col. Saito was essential to the success of
David Lean's film, built as it was
around the battle of wills between Hayakawa's commandant and
Alec Guinness' Col. Nicholson, head of the
Allied POWs. The film won the Best Picture Academy Award, while Lean
and Guiness also were rewarded with Oscars.
Hayakawa continued to act in movies regularly until his retirement in
1966. He returned to Japan, becoming a Zen Buddhist priest while
remaining involved in his craft by giving private acting lessons.
Ninety years after achieving stardom, he remains one of the
few Asians to assume superstar status in American motion pictures.- Actress
- Soundtrack
She was born Dorothy Arlene Dodd on December 29, 1911 in Baxter, Iowa when her Little Rock, Arkansas parents were on a trip to Des Moines. Her father was a doctor who abandoned her and her mother before she was ten years old. Her mother suffered from tuberculosis and Dorothy was forced to support her. She went to New York at the age of fifteen, lied about her age, and joined the Ziegfeld Follies where she was eventually discovered by Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of Fox.
Zanuck brought her to Hollywood and shepherded her throughout most of
her career. She worked for Warner Brothers, Paramount, and Universal.
She typically played the conniving "other" woman and could not be cast
as a "dumb blonde" because of her cerebral nature and demeanor. Good
friends with Bette Davis, with whom she worked in Ex-Lady (1933), she worked with everyone from Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn to Barbara Stanwyck, and James Cagney.
She played famed Girl Friday Della Street in a couple of 1930s Perry Mason mystery film thrillers, starring Warren William and in one
(The Case of the Velvet Claws (1936)), she married Mason, the only Della Street to do so. She played the female lead in In the Navy (1941) opposite Dick Powell but received lesser billing, which she claimed was a standard procedure practiced on her in recompense for her aloofness and refusal to go along with the
Hollywood system. In fact, one reporter whom she rebuffed nicknamed her "Ice Bucket" and the reputation stuck.
She worked in almost sixty films between 1930 and 1942. She quit films and married second husband H. Brand Cooper, with whom she raised four children. She undertook and completed this phase of her life after age forty, giving birth to her last child at the age of forty-seven. She was, to say the least, a remarkable woman. She died in the family home from cancer on November 23, 1973, aged 61.- Robert Ellis was born on 24 August 1933 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Space Master X-7 (1958), Gidget (1959) and The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950). He was married to Aloha Wilkerson. He died on 23 November 1973 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Paul Newlan was born on 29 June 1903 in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor, known for Down Rio Grande Way (1942), Dragnet (1947) and M Squad (1957). He was married to Hazel Bokarney Newlan. He died on 23 November 1973 in Studio City, California, USA.
- Actress
- Producer
Constance was blonde; star sister
Norma Talmadge was brunette. She was
buoyant and a comedienne; Norma was introspective and a tragedienne.
Nicknamed "Dutch" by her stage mother Peg as she looked like a cherubic
Little Dutch Boy, silver screen star Constance Talmadge was one of
silent pictures' most popular and enduring stars of romantic comedy.
Born in Brooklyn in April 19, 1898 (various sources give different years ranging
from 1897 to 1903), her New York City childhood was humbling and
tragic. Their father Fred Talmadge was a chronic alcoholic who
ultimately deserted his family, which included sister
Natalie Talmadge, while all three girls
were quite young. By the time Norma had become a commodity for
Vitagraph Studios, Constance, in her early teens, begged to follow.
Constance's first comedy short for Vitagraph was
In Bridal Attire (1914). As the
two sisters were as different as night and day, professional jealousy
never entered into the picture. In fact, all three sisters remained
consistently loyal throughout their lives. Appearing in a number of
two-reel comedies predominantly with comedian
Billy Quirk, Constance drew major acclaim in
the role of The Mountain Girl in
D.W. Griffith's epic masterpiece
Intolerance (1916).
Her role was so inspiring that when Griffith re-issued her segment as a
solo feature entitled
The Fall of Babylon (1919),
he re-shot her death scene ending so that her character would wind up
living happily ever after.
Throughout the late '10s and early '20s the
elegant Constance charmed audiences with a number of flapper-era comedy
vehicles, many of them co-starring silent film great
Harrison Ford (not related to
the present-day star). These include
A Pair of Silk Stockings (1918),
Happiness a la Mode (1919),
Romance and Arabella (1919),
Wedding Bells (1921) and
The Primitive Lover (1922).
She grew so much in stature that she eventually formed her own
production company. Constance, as did sister Norma, abruptly left films
with the advent of sound. The notion that they willingly abandoned
their careers while very much on top does not quite ring true. Both she
and Norma's pronounced and rather squeaky Brooklyn accent did not prove
all that suitable for talkies (particularly for the dramatic Norma) and
it's more likely that they left Hollywood on their own terms before
they were shunned.
Both sisters invested wisely in business ventures in
later life. Married four times, Constance became reclusive and fell
victim (as did sisters Norma and Natalie) to alcohol abuse in later
years. She died of pneumonia in Los Angeles on November 23, 1973.- Music Artist
- Music Department
- Actor
José Alfredo Jiménez was born on 9 January 1926 in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Mexico. He was a music artist and actor, known for Machete (2010), A Bigger Splash (2015) and Lone Star (1996). He was married to Paloma Gálvez, Alicia Juárez and Mary Medel. He died on 23 November 1973 in Mexico City, Mexico.- Ninetta Sunderland was born on 13 April 1898 in Fresno, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Sweepings (1933), Unconquered (1947) and The Carnival Man (1929). She was married to Walter Huston. She died on 23 November 1973 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Adele Buffington was born on 12 February 1900 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She was a writer, known for The Duke Comes Back (1937), West of Singapore (1933) and Jiggs and Maggie Out West (1950). She was married to Edward Vore. She died on 23 November 1973 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jennie Tourel was born on 22 June 1900 in Vitebsk, Russian Empire [now Belarus]. She was an actress, known for NET Opera Theater (1967), Pique Dame (1971) and A Journey to Jerusalem (1968). She died on 23 November 1973 in New York City, New York, USA.- Polly Luce was born on 29 March 1905 in Marion, Grant County, Indiana, USA. She was an actress, known for Maid Happy (1933) and Send 'em Back Half Dead (1933). She was married to Wendell Dekalb Levan and Wilfred Henry Troutbeck. She died on 23 November 1973 in Fort Pierce, Saint Lucie County, Florida, USA.