James Shigeta | ALEFAST

James Shigeta

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.

Known For: Acting

Born: Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, USA, 1929-06-17

Died: 2014-07-28

Film

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1959	The Crimson Kimono	Detective Joe Kojaku	67
2	1960	Walk Like a Dragon	Cheng Lu	50
3	1961	Cry for Happy	Harue	50
4	1961	Bridge to the Sun	Hidenari Terasaki	68
5	1961	Flower Drum Song	Wang Ta	61
6	1964	Carol for Another Christmas	Japanese Doctor	56
7	1966	Paradise, Hawaiian Style	Danny Kohana	51
8	1967	Death Walks in Laredo	Lester Koto	65
9	1967	The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Chinese Junk	George Ti Ming	60
10	1968	Nobody's Perfect	Diver Toshi O'Hara	55
11	1968	Manila, Open City	Captain Murakami	82
12	1968	Escape to Mindanao	Lt. Takahashi	0
13	1969	Operation Heartbeat	Chief Resident	0
14	1969	The Young Lawyers	Lee Ahn	0
15	1973	Lost Horizon	Brother To-Lenn	54
16	1974	The Questor Tapes	Dr. Chen	57
17	1974	The Yakuza	Goro	71
18	1975	Matt Helm	Tom McCauley	0
19	1976	The Killer Who Wouldn't Die	David Lao	0
20	1976	Midway	Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo	66
21	1979	Samurai	Takeo Chisato	0
22	1980	Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb	Field Marshal Abehata	57
23	1982	Tomorrow's Child	Donald Shibura	20
24	1982	The Renegades	Jimmy Lee	64
25	1988	Die Hard	Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi	78
26	1988	Slaying the Dragon		0
27	1989	Cage	Tin Lum Yin	31
28	1990	Home from the Eastern Sea	Narrator	0
29	1990	China Cry	Dr. Sung	60
30	1994	Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die	Det. Whoo	65
31	1994	Cage II: The Arena of Death	Tin Lum Yin	31
32	1995	Midnight Man	Mao Mak	51
33	1996	Space Marines	Ambassador Nakamura	33
34	1997	Drive	Mr. Lau	61
35	1998	Mulan	General Li (voice)	79
36	1999	Qigong: Ancient Chinese Healing for the 21st Century	Narrator	0
37	2000	Brother	Sugimoto	71
38	2006	The Slanted Screen	Himself	100
39	2007	Hollywood Chinese	Self	0
40	2009	The People I've Slept With	Charles Yang	46
41	2019	Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood	(archive footage)	57
42	2022	Yorktown: A Time to Heal	Admiral Heilachiro Nogura	0
43	2025	Beam Me Up, Sulu	Self	0

Television

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1944	Golden Globe Awards	Self - Audience Member	72
2	1944	Golden Globe Awards	Self - Winner	72
3	1956	The Dinah Shore Chevy Show	Self	60
4	1957	Perry Mason	Ward Toyama	77
5	1958	Naked City	James Kam	55
6	1961	Kraft Mystery Theatre		60
7	1961	Dr. Kildare	Dr. Roy Shigera	55
8	1961	Ben Casey		56
9	1963	The Lieutenant		60
10	1963	The Outer Limits	Maj. Jong	78
11	1963	The Outer Limits	AIO Captain Newa	78
12	1963	Burke's Law	Sidney Ying	60
13	1964	The Bing Crosby Show		50
14	1966	Mission: Impossible	Shiki	76
15	1967	Ironside		68
16	1968	Hawaii Five-O	Joseph Matsukino	71
17	1969	Medical Center	Dr. Osaka	61
18	1972	Emergency!		78
19	1972	The Streets of San Francisco		69
20	1972	The Streets of San Francisco	Prosecutor	69
21	1972	Kung Fu	Master Kwan Li	77
22	1972	Kung Fu	Col. Lin Pei	77
23	1974	Little House on the Prairie		79
24	1974	Police Woman		63
25	1974	The Rockford Files	Clement Chin	75
26	1975	S.W.A.T.		70
27	1975	Ellery Queen	Stephen Yang	74
28	1976	Once an Eagle	Lin Tso-Han	68
29	1977	The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries		71
30	1977	The Love Boat	Bud's Father	63
31	1980	Magnum, P.I.	Richard Enoka	73
32	1980	Magnum, P.I.	Mr. Obotu	73
33	1981	Simon & Simon		67
34	1982	T. J. Hooker	Chow Duc Khan	64
35	1982	Matt Houston		62
36	1983	The Hitchhiker	Nishi	61
37	1983	Masquerade	Makko	50
38	1984	Airwolf	Colonel Tranh Van Zung	76
39	1984	Murder, She Wrote	John Sukahara	75
40	1984	Murder, She Wrote	Luc Li	75
41	1987	Jake and the Fatman	Mr. Koso Nakasone	60
42	1990	Beverly Hills, 90210		74
43	1992	Renegade		67
44	1992	Renegade	Mr. Ota	67
45	1993	seaQuest DSV	Vietnamese President Chi	70
46	1994	Babylon 5	Taro Isogi	80
47	1996	The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest	Inspector Mantjur (voice)	72
48	1996	The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest	Dr. Yamashiro (voice)	72
49	2003	Threat Matrix	Kang Sok-Joo	60
50	2005	Avatar: The Last Airbender		88