James Shigeta

Old Wanderer

 * 1.07 "Winter Solstice Part 1: The Spirit World"

Television work

 * Beverly Hills, 90210
 * The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
 * Simon &amp; Simon
 * Kung Fu
 * Medical Center
 * Threat Matrix
 * Cybill
 * Babylon 5
 * Renegade
 * SeaQuest 2032
 * Murder, She Wrote
 * Dragnet
 * Jake and the Fatman
 * A Peaceable Kingdom
 * Mission: Impossible
 * The Hitchhiker
 * Magnum, P.I.
 * Airwolf
 * Matt Houston
 * Masquerade
 * The Love Boat
 * T.J. Hooker
 * Strike Force
 * The Greatest American Hero
 * Fantasy Island
 * The Rockford Files
 * Police Women
 * The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries
 * Little House on the Prairie
 * The Streets of San Francisco
 * Arthur Hailey's the Moneychangers (TV mini-series)
 * Once an Eagle (TV mini-series)
 * Enola Gay: The Men, The Mission, the Atomic Bomb (TV movie)
 * Samurai (TV movie)
 * Tomorrow's Child (TV movie)
 * The Renegades (TV movie)
 * The Family Martinez (TV movie)
 * Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die (TV movie)
 * The Killer Who Wouldn't Die (TV movie)

Filmography

 * The People I've Slept With (2009)
 * A Ribbon of Dreams (2002)
 * Brother (2000)
 * Brother (2000)
 * Mulan (1998)
 * Drive (1997)
 * Space Marines (1997)
 * Midnight Man (1995)
 * Cage II (1994)
 * China Cry: A True Story (1990)
 * Cage (1989)
 * Die Hard (1988)
 * Midway (1976)
 * The Yakuza (1974)
 * Lost Horizon (1973)
 * Nobody's Perfect (1968)
 * Manila, Open City (1968)
 * The Mystery of the Chinese Junk (1967)
 * Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966)
 * Tre pistole contro Cesare (1966)
 * Flower Drum Song (1961)
 * Bridge to the Sun (1961)
 * Cry for Happy (1961)
 * Walk Like a Dragon (1960)
 * The Crimson Dragon (1959)

Personal Life
Born in Hawaii of Japanese ancestry, Shigeta studied drama at New York University. Before he could fully embark on a business career, Shigeta enlisted to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War.

James Shigeta entered and won first prize on Ted Mack's television talent show, Original Amateur Hour. Embarking on a singing career, his agent at the time gave him the non-ethnic sounding stage name of "Guy Brion" alluding to Shigeta as a cultured European. Under his new name, he developed a supper club musical career in the United States, singing at venues such as the Mocambo and the Los Angeles Players Club. Despite that success, breaking into the movies eluded him.

The American-born Shigeta did not speak the Japanese language until Toho Studios in Tokyo invited him to be a musical star under his real name in Japan. He spent years in that country, becoming a success in all media aspects: radio, television, stage, supper clubs, movies, recordings, being known as "The Frank Sinatra of Japan".

In 1958, the Nichigeki Theatre in Tokyo exported their extravaganza Cherry Blossom Show, with James Shigeta as the male lead, to The Empire Theatre in Australia. The show was a big success, with one Australian reviewer writing about Shigeta, "...has matinee idol good looks and a soothing baritone voice that should send the record companies mad for his autograph on recording contracts."

Shigeta returned to the United States to sing on Dinah Shore Show. By 1959 he was the star of the Shirley MacLaine-Steve Parker production of Holiday in Japan at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

In 1969, Shigeta toured the United States in the lead role of The King and I, with Melva Niles and Pam Cavan co-starring in the production.

Career
When movies began to open up for him, Shigeta took acting lessons from seasoned dialogue coach Leon Charles.

Shigeta first came on screen in the U.S., in 1959 as Detective Joe Kojaku in Crimson Kimono, a detective story which featured an interracial romantic triangle. Shigeta's character was somewhat groundbreaking for the 1950s, an Asian detective played by an Asian actor with regular speech patterns, rather than a non-Asian made up to pass as Asian who speaks in broken English.

Paramount Pictures and James Clavell cast Shigeta in the 1960 release Walk Like A Dragon, as Cheng Lu, a young Chinese man in the American old west who resents that Chinese must be subservient to white people. When filming began, Shigeta, was still starring in Holiday in Japan in Las Vegas. An arrangement was made to transport him after his last show to the Paramount studio by ambulance to make sure he arrived on time. Technical advisor to Shigeta on the film was Benson Fong, who taught Shigeta how to mount a horse Chinese style. Jack Lord has first billing in this movie, which pits Shigeta against Lord for the affections of Kim Sung, played by Nobu McCarthy. Shigeta and Lord would work together again in the 1968 "Hawaii Five-O" episode Deathwatch.

The 1961 romantic comedy Cry for Happy had Shigeta co-starring with Glenn Ford, Donald O'Connor and Miyoshi Umeki in a tale about Korean War era United States Navy photographers in Japan.

In 1961, Shigeta was cast as Wang Ta, a role originated by Ed Kenney on Broadway,[14] in the Academy Awards-nominated movie version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song with Nancy Kwan and Miyoshi Umeki playing the love interests.

He was cast as World War II Japanese diplomat Hidenari Terasaki opposite Carroll Baker as Gwen Terasaki in the 1961 biographical movie Bridge to the Sun. A rarity for its era, the movie told the true story of a racially mixed marriage set against the background of the war between the United States and Japan.

Shigeta guest starred in many television shows, beginning with "Alcoa Premiere" in 1961, as a Korean War era Chinese Communist who tortured star Lloyd Bridges. He has continued to act in television up through Avatar: The Last Airbender in 2005.

In 1965, Shigeta worked with Raymond Burr in the "Perry Mason" episode The Case of the Wrongful Writ, cast as lawyer Ward Toyama who finds himself as the defendant. Shigeta worked with Raymond Burr two more times in the 1969 "Ironside" episode Love My Enemy, and the 1971 episode No Motive for Murder of the same series.

During 1969–1972, Shigeta had recurring appearances on the TV hospital drama "Medical Center:, in which he alternately appeared as the Resident Doctor and Doctor Osaka, for seven episodes. He played the role of Chief Resident in the series 1969 2-hour pilot "U.M.C."

"Tomorrow's Child" from 1982, with Shigeta as a medical assistant to doctor Ed Flanders, dealt with the subject matter of a baby being brought to full term in a test tube.

He also continued starring in films. In 1988, he played the ill-fated corporate executive Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi in the action adventure film Die Hard. Cage II: The Arena of Death from 1994 pits star Lou Ferrigno against Shigeta's character of underworld crime boss Tim Yum Yum. Shigeta has lent his voice to Disney's 1998 animated film Mulan.