His "broodingly handsome"[2] good looks and typecasting as a sexually dominant villain made him a heartthrob among American women during a time of racial discrimination, and he became one of the first male sex symbols of Hollywood.

[3][4][5] After withdrawing from the Japanese naval academy and attempting suicide at 18, Hayakawa attended the University of Chicago, where he studied political economics in accordance with his wealthy parents' wish that he become a banker.

[10] Of his talkies, Hayakawa is probably best known for his role as Kuala, the pirate captain in Swiss Family Robinson (1960) and Colonel Saito in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

However, while a student at the naval academy in Etajima, he swam to the bottom of a lagoon (he grew up in a shellfish diving community) on a dare and ruptured his eardrum.

The barking dog brought Hayakawa's parents to the scene and his father used an axe to break down the door, saving his life.

[18] After he recovered from the suicide attempt, Hayakawa moved to the United States and began to study political economics at the University of Chicago to fulfill his family's new wish that he become a banker.

[22] Hayakawa's acting career instead likely followed a series of odd jobs in California: as a dishwasher, waiter, ice cream vendor, and factory worker; his theatrical appearances also were just another temporary pursuit.

Tsuru Aoki, a member of the acting troupe, was so impressed with Hayakawa's abilities and enthusiasm that she enticed film producer Thomas H. Ince to see the play.

[18] The Typhoon (1914) became an instant hit and was followed by two additional pictures produced by Ince, The Wrath of the Gods (1914) co-starring Hayakawa's new wife, Aoki, and The Sacrifice (1914).

[3][4][5] "It caused a sensation," says Stephen Gong, the executive director of San Francisco's Center for Asian American Media.

[7][30] In 1917, he built his residence, a castle-styled mansion, at the corner of Franklin Avenue and Argyle Street in Hollywood, which was a local landmark until it was demolished in 1956.

Hayakawa sought to bring muga, or the "absence of doing", to his performances, in direct contrast to the then-popular studied poses and broad gestures.

[18] In 1918, Hayakawa personally chose the American serials actress Marin Sais to appear opposite him in a series of films, the first being the racial drama The City of Dim Faces (1918), followed by His Birthright (1918), which also starred Aoki.

Hayakawa drove a gold plated Pierce-Arrow and entertained lavishly in his "Castle", which was known as the scene of some of Hollywood's wildest parties.

[39][40] In 1930, Hayakawa performed in Samurai, a one-act play written specifically for him, in front of Great Britain's King George V and Queen Mary.

Hayakawa became widely known in France, where audiences "enthusiastically embraced" him and made his French debut, La Bataille (1923) (also produced by Robertson-Cole Pictures Corporation), a critical and financial success.

[18] In the initial decades of his career, Hayakawa established himself as the first leading man of Asian descent in American and European cinema.

[46] Returning to the United States again in 1926 to appear on Broadway—and later in vaudeville—Hayakawa opened a Zen temple and study hall on New York's Upper West Side.

[23] Hayakawa later transitioned into doing talkies; his return to Hollywood and sound film debut came in Daughter of the Dragon (1931), starring opposite Chinese American performer Anna May Wong.

Hayakawa followed Tokyo Joe with Three Came Home (1950), in which he played real-life POW camp commander Lieutenant-Colonel Suga, before returning to France.

[18] After the war, Hayakawa's on-screen roles can best be described as "the honorable villain", a figure exemplified by his portrayal of Colonel Saito in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).

[51] Hayakawa was constantly typecast as a villain or forbidden lover and was unable to play parts that would be given to white actors such as Douglas Fairbanks.

[53] Hayakawa's dilemma was analogous to that of Rudolph Valentino, nine years his junior; both were foreign born, and were typecast as exotic or forbidden lovers.

[18] Writing to the "What the Picture Did for Me" section of the Exhibitors Herald in March 1922, a theater owner in Denison, Iowa, with a population of about 3,500, revealed the mixed feelings about Hayakawa in middle America (and the language used to describe him): "The Jap is sure a good actor, but some people don't seem to like him.

[56] Hayakawa's early films were not popular in Japan because many felt that his roles portrayed Japanese men as sadistic and cruel.

Hayakawa had an affair with a white actress, Ruth Noble, a fellow vaudeville performer[60][61] who had co-starred with him in The Bandit Prince.

Most of his later works, including The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Geisha Boy, Swiss Family Robinson, Tokyo Joe, and Three Came Home are available on DVD.

Japanese film director Nagisa Oshima planned to create a biopic entitled Hollywood Zen based on Hayakawa's life.

[69][70] Media professor Karla Rae Fuller wrote in 2010: "What is even more remarkable about Hayakawa's precedent-setting career in Hollywood as an Asian American is the fact that he is virtually ignored in film history as well as star studies. [...]

Furthermore, the fact that he reached such a rare level of success whereby he could form and run his own production company makes his omission from the narrative of Hollywood history even more egregious.