Not one to waste his time, he would also have a starring role on Broadway, write a novel called The Bandit Prince, adapt The Bandit Prince into a play, produce a Japanese language stage version of The Three Musketeers, and–being practicing Zen Buddhist–open a Zen temple in New York City. Other issues included suffering a burst appendix during the shoot of The Swamp (1921) and more prosaic troubles involving insurance.ĭeciding to leave Hollywood, Hayakawa returned home to Japan for a time and then started making films in France and Britain. But by 1922 Hayakawa’s career was starting to slump, helped along by anti-Asian sentiment in the aftermath of World War I. Reportedly, he and Tsuru would host lavish dinners for hundreds of guests at a time. It was filled with art and antique Japanese weapons and had a replica of an authentic tea house on its grounds. He drove a gold-plated Rolls Royce and hosted legendary parties in his mansion, which had been designed to look like a French castle. Stars: Fannie Ward, Sessue Hayakawa, Jack Dean, James Neill, Yutaka Abe, Dana Ong. Hayakawa clearly being a star on the rise, he was signed by Famous Players-Lasky (now known as Paramount).īy the late 1910s Hayakawa was commanding $3,500 a week and was happy to spend his money almost as fast as it came in. Publication date 1915 Usage Attribution 3.0. The 1914 film was a hit and was soon followed by The Wrath of the Gods and The Sacrifice (both 1914). with Fannie Ward in The Cheat (1915) The conclusion of the First World War saw a lot of Asian immigration to the USA, at a time when work was scarce. The canny Tsuru convinced film producer Thomas Ince to attend the Theatre’s performance of The Typhoon and Ince quickly decided he wanted to make a film version with Hayakawa as the lead. Sessue was hot to trot and suddenly became one of Hollywood’s highest paid actors.
The dignified young man quickly made an impression on his fellow actors, including actress Tsuru Aoki, who would later become his wife (they would also adopt three children, Yukio, Yoshiko and Fujiko). Enamored with the production’s artistry, he decided to try to become an actor and took the name “Sessue” (meaning “snowy continent”) as a stage name. At any rate, while spending some time in Los Angeles he ducked into the Japanese Theatre in the Little Tokyo district. But apparently there’s no record of Hayakawa attending the university, and he may have spent his time in the U.S. For a long time Sessue Hayakawa was on the Magazine’s future story ideas list.According to many sources, including the New York Timesand, well, the University of Chicago Magazinethe Japanese-born actor attended the College and played varsity football before becoming a cinema sensation and unlikely American matinee idol in the 1910s. He later claimed his family sent him to the University of Chicago to study political economics with the goal of becoming a banker.
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