James Shigeta

Acting

James Shigeta

Overview

Known for
Acting
Gender
Other
Birthday
Jun 17, 1929 (96 years old)
Death date
Jul 28, 2014

James Shigeta

Known For

Yorktown: A Time to Heal
0h 23m
Movie 2022

Yorktown: A Time to Heal

Having escaped capture by the Klingons, a damaged Starfleet reconnaissance...

Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
0h 53m
Movie 2019

Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood

A history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after...

The People I've Slept With
1h 29m
Movie 2009

The People I've Slept With

The People I've Slept With - a promiscuous woman who...

The Slanted Screen
1h 0m
Movie 2006

The Slanted Screen

From silent film star Sessue Hayakawa to Harold and Kumar...

Qigong: Ancient Chinese Healing for the 21st Century
0h 55m
Movie 1999

Qigong: Ancient Chinese Healing for the 21st Century

This documentary introduces viewers to qigong, a 5,000-year-old method of...

Midnight Man
1h 33m
Movie 1995

Midnight Man

When the police start a crackdown on Yakuza activities, a...

Cage II: The Arena of Death
1h 46m
Movie 1994

Cage II: The Arena of Death

After being tricked into thinking his best friend, and caretaker...

Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die
1h 30m
Movie 1994

Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die

The Harts find themselves in the middle of a dangerous...

China Cry
1h 41m
Movie 1990

China Cry

Young Sung Neng Yee, who is brought as part of...

Home from the Eastern Sea
0h 57m
Movie 1990

Home from the Eastern Sea

This documentary covers the story of Chinese-, Japanese-, and Filipino-Americans...

Biography

James Saburo Shigeta (June 17, 1929 – July 28, 2014) was an American actor, singer, and musician of Japanese descent. He was noted for his roles in The Crimson Kimono (1959), Walk Like a Dragon (1960), Flower Drum Song (1961), Bridge to the Sun (1961), Die Hard (1988), and Mulan (1998). In 1960, he won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, along with three other actors. In his early career, Shigeta often played romantic male lead roles, which were almost nonexistent for an actor of Asian descent during his time, making him a trailblazer in Asian American representation in media. The Goldsea Asian-American Daily magazine listed him as one of the "Most Inspiring Asian-Americans Of All Time". Before his Hollywood career he found success as a pop singer and performer abroad, especially in Japan and Australia.