James Shigeta
Explore James Shigeta's movie filmography on ReelBot, including film credits, roles, release dates, ratings, and movie details.
Acting
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.
Filmography
- Beam Me Up, Sulu (2025)
- Yorktown: A Time to Heal (2022)
- Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood (2019)
- The People I've Slept With (2010)
- Hollywood Chinese (2007)
- The Slanted Screen (2006)
- Brother (2000)
- Qigong: Ancient Chinese Healing for the 21st Century (1999)
- Mulan (1998)
- Drive (1997)
- Space Marines (1996)
- Midnight Man (1995)
- Cage II: The Arena of Death (1994)
- Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die (1994)
- China Cry (1990)
- Home from the Eastern Sea (1990)
- Cage (1989)
- Slaying the Dragon (1988)
- Die Hard (1988)
- The Renegades (1982)
- Tomorrow's Child (1982)
- Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb (1980)
- Samurai (1979)
- Midway (1976)
- The Killer Who Wouldn't Die (1976)
- Matt Helm (1975)
- The Yakuza (1974)
- The Questor Tapes (1974)
- Lost Horizon (1973)
- The Young Lawyers (1969)
- Operation Heartbeat (1969)
- Escape to Mindanao (1968)
- Manila, Open City (1968)
- Nobody's Perfect (1968)
- The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Chinese Junk (1967)
- Death Walks in Laredo (1967)
- Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966)
- Carol for Another Christmas (1964)
- Flower Drum Song (1961)
- Bridge to the Sun (1961)
- Cry for Happy (1961)
- Walk Like a Dragon (1960)
- The Crimson Kimono (1959)