James Shigeta

James Saburo Shigeta (June 17, 1929 – July 28, 2014) was an American film and television actor. He was also a standards singer, musical theatre and nightclub performer, and recording artist. He was a Sansei, a third-generation American of Japanese ancestry. 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. His most successful romantic lead roles were in the films The Crimson Kimono and Bridge to the Sun. Before his Hollywood career he found success as a singer and performer abroad, especially in Japan and Australia. 2Biography 3Early life Born in the Territory of Hawaii of Japanese ancestry in 1929, Shigeta was a 1947 graduate of President Theodore Roosevelt High School, and studied drama at New York University. After completing ROTC, he enlisted in the Hawaii National Guard 298th infantry prior to his 1951 enlistment in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean Wa