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Started By
Message
James Shigeta passed away, age 81
Posted on 7/29/14 at 3:35 pm
Posted on 7/29/14 at 3:35 pm
I never knew his name until today but he was in a lot movies that I liked, and according to cnn he is considered one of the first Asian-American actors to rise to prominence in Hollywood.
Die Hard
Midway
Magnum PI
Mission Impossible
Die Hard
Midway
Magnum PI
Mission Impossible
7
Posted on 7/29/14 at 3:39 pm to TigerintheNO
Very good actor, under used by Hollywood.
Posted on 7/29/14 at 3:52 pm to TigerintheNO
Well this is certainly one obit I never expected to see on the MTVB
In the classic western second feature Walk Like A Dragon Shigeta plays a Chinese coolie turned gunfighter:
Shigeta learns his trade from a gunslinger played by... Mel Torme?!?
Actually Torme was very accomplished, part of the "fast draw" craze in '50s Hollywood. Others included Glenn Ford, Audie Murphy, and (BION) Sammy Davis Jr, who even featured gun tricks in his nightclub act.
In the classic western second feature Walk Like A Dragon Shigeta plays a Chinese coolie turned gunfighter:
Shigeta learns his trade from a gunslinger played by... Mel Torme?!?
Actually Torme was very accomplished, part of the "fast draw" craze in '50s Hollywood. Others included Glenn Ford, Audie Murphy, and (BION) Sammy Davis Jr, who even featured gun tricks in his nightclub act.
Posted on 7/29/14 at 3:58 pm to TigerintheNO
quote:
considered one of the first Asian-American actors to rise to prominence in Hollywood.
Posted on 7/29/14 at 4:00 pm to TigerintheNO
Really good in Midway - gave a relatively early humanized face of the enemy for U.S. audiences - 35 years after Pearl Harbor.
A third-generation American, born in Hawaii, he did not learn Japanese until he became a musical star there after his service in the USMC during the Korean War.
A third-generation American, born in Hawaii, he did not learn Japanese until he became a musical star there after his service in the USMC during the Korean War.
Posted on 7/29/14 at 4:08 pm to TigerintheNO
quote:
Mission Impossible
don't you mean Mission Impossibru?
Posted on 7/29/14 at 4:10 pm to SlowFlowPro
quote:
don't you mean Mission Impossibru?
English was his first language, Jake - and the man's no longer with us.
Posted on 7/29/14 at 4:11 pm to Ace Midnight
it's an internet meme, not specific to this particular guy 
Posted on 7/29/14 at 4:17 pm to SlowFlowPro
quote:
it's an internet meme, not specific to this particular guy
Tracking - not funny - but tracking.
Posted on 7/29/14 at 4:23 pm to TigerintheNO
Shame to see this.
Hollywood still seems to not like putting Asians in movies
Hollywood still seems to not like putting Asians in movies
Posted on 7/29/14 at 6:19 pm to TigerintheNO
RIP Mr. Takagi
Posted on 7/29/14 at 6:55 pm to John McClane
Was driving me crazy. I couldn't figure out where I remember him from. Checked IMDB and my brain has him stored over in the Lost Horizon section.
He was the man in the 70s. All over the place.
He was the man in the 70s. All over the place.
Posted on 7/29/14 at 7:44 pm to WPBTiger
Posted on 7/29/14 at 8:13 pm to Ace Midnight
quote:
Really good in Midway - gave a relatively early humanized face of the enemy for U.S. audiences - 35 years after Pearl Harbor.
agree, most of the Asian actors in Midway turned in top notch performances, him, Pat Morita, John Fujioka Dale Ishimoto, Robert Ito, and Toshirô Mifune really helped to make a great movie.
They say Mifune who played Yamamoto was such a stickler for detail he refused to wear the first uniform they provided and sent back to Japan for an exact replica.
That movie had a few smallish stars like Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook and of course Heston, but Shigeta really turned in one of the top performances in the film.
This post was edited on 7/29/14 at 8:23 pm
Posted on 7/29/14 at 10:31 pm to Jagd Tiger
quote:
agree, most of the Asian actors in Midway turned in top notch performances, him, Pat Morita, John Fujioka Dale Ishimoto, Robert Ito, and Toshirô Mifune really helped to make a great movie.
Absolutely - until Letters from Iwo Jima, Midway and, perhaps, Tora! Tora! Tora! were the only big budget American films to offer the Japanese some voice and dignity.
Midway and A Bridge Too Far - the 2 big color WWII epics of the 1970s have aged very well and are stuffed full of big name actors.
I like Shigeta in most things - his many, many television appearances, for example. I wasn't much for Flower Drum Song, but it is a fun watch to see him and Jack Soo, so young, in a musical.
Had a film like The Last Samurai been made 15, 20 years earlier, he could have easily carried off the Katsumoto role very well. In many ways Ken Watanabe has taken up Shigeta's banner, at least on the film side.
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