Tsuru Aoki
Encyclopedia
was a popular Japanese-American stage and screen actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film
era of the 1910s through the 1920s. Aoki may have been the first Asian actress to garner top-billing in American motion pictures.
, Japan
, Aoki emigrated to Los Angeles
, California
in 1903 with her aunt and uncle, who had previously owned the Imperial Theater of Japan. Aoki was later adopted by another uncle and relocated to San Francisco.
Aoki began her acting career after returning to Los Angeles and performing in stage productions in the city's Japanese Theatre where she was noticed by film producer Thomas Ince
who placed the young actress under contract. Aoki made her film debut in the Majestic film studios release The Oath of Tsuru San
in 1913 opposite actor William Garwood
. Her follow-up film was the 1914 Ince produced O Mimi San, which starred the American child actress Mildred Harris
and a handsome young newcomer named Sessue Hayakawa
, whom Aoki had acted with onstage at the Japanese Theatre the previous year.
The couple began a romantic relationship that would culminate in their marriage on May 1, 1914, just weeks before the release of their critically acclaimed and publicly successful film The Wrath of the Gods - a melodrama about an interracial romance between a man portrayed by Caucasian actor/director Frank Borzage
and an Asian woman portrayed by Aoki. The film also starred Sessue Hayakawa and featured actress Gladys Brockwell
. Hayakawa and Aoki would eventually make more than twenty films together throughout the 1910s and 1920s.
One of Aoki's most recalled films of the silent period is the 1919 William Worthington
-directed The Dragon Painter
, in which Aoki starred, playing a young woman who convinces an isolated, mentally deranged artist named Tatsu (portrayed by Hayakawa) to come down from the mountains so that she may civilize him and he may further his artistic abilities. Other notable films of the period were The Typhoon (1914), The Vigil (1914), The Geisha (1914), The Chinatown Mystery (1915), His Birthright (1918), and Breath of the Gods (1920).
Throughout the 1910s, Aoki would appear in approximately forty films, often in leading-lady roles which was a first for an Asian actress. Some of her co-stars of the era included such notable names as Marin Sais
, Frank Borzage
, Gladys Brockwell
, Mildred Harris
, Jack Holt
, Jane Wolfe
, Dagmar Godowsky
, Vola Vale
, Florence Vidor
, Earle Foxe
, and Walter Long
.
After a series of moderately successful Ince-produced two-reel serials, Aoki's career in the United States began to falter (while her husband's career began to build momentum), and the couple travelled to France in 1923 and filmed the popular Édouard-Émile Violet-directed drama La Bataille. After returning to America, however, Aoki made only three more films before retiring from the screen to raise her and Hayakawa's three adopted children. Her last silent screen performance was the 1924 release The Danger Line.
Aoki would only return to the screen in 1960 (her first talkie) to once again appear with her husband in the drama Hell To Eternity. She died the following year in Japan of acute peritonitis
at the age of 69.
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
era of the 1910s through the 1920s. Aoki may have been the first Asian actress to garner top-billing in American motion pictures.
Life and career
Born in TokyoTokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Aoki emigrated to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1903 with her aunt and uncle, who had previously owned the Imperial Theater of Japan. Aoki was later adopted by another uncle and relocated to San Francisco.
Aoki began her acting career after returning to Los Angeles and performing in stage productions in the city's Japanese Theatre where she was noticed by film producer Thomas Ince
Thomas H. Ince
Thomas Harper Ince was an American silent film actor, director, screenwriter and producer of more than 100 films and pioneering studio mogul. Known as the "Father of the Western", he invented many mechanisms of professional movie production, introducing early Hollywood to the "assembly line"...
who placed the young actress under contract. Aoki made her film debut in the Majestic film studios release The Oath of Tsuru San
The Oath of Tsuru San
The Oath of Tsuru San is a 1913 American silent short drama film starring William Garwood and Japanese actress Tsuru Aoki....
in 1913 opposite actor William Garwood
William Garwood
William Garwood was an American stage and film actor and director of the early silent era in the 1910s....
. Her follow-up film was the 1914 Ince produced O Mimi San, which starred the American child actress Mildred Harris
Mildred Harris
Mildred Harris was an American film actress. Harris began her career in the film industry as a popular child actress at age eleven. At the age of fifteen, she was cast as a harem girl in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance . She appeared as a leading lady through the 1920s but her career slowed with...
and a handsome young newcomer named Sessue Hayakawa
Sessue Hayakawa
was a Japanese and American Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors...
, whom Aoki had acted with onstage at the Japanese Theatre the previous year.
The couple began a romantic relationship that would culminate in their marriage on May 1, 1914, just weeks before the release of their critically acclaimed and publicly successful film The Wrath of the Gods - a melodrama about an interracial romance between a man portrayed by Caucasian actor/director Frank Borzage
Frank Borzage
Frank Borzage was an American film director and actor.-Biography:Frank Borzage's father, Luigi Borzaga, was born in Ronzone, in 1859. As a stonemason, he sometimes worked in Switzerland; he met his future wife, Maria Ruegg , where she worked in a silk factory...
and an Asian woman portrayed by Aoki. The film also starred Sessue Hayakawa and featured actress Gladys Brockwell
Gladys Brockwell
Gladys Brockwell was an American actress whose career began during the silent film era.-Early life:Born Gladys Lindeman in Brooklyn, New York, she was the daughter of a chorus girl who put her on stage at a very early age. By the time she reached her middle teens, she was already a veteran and...
. Hayakawa and Aoki would eventually make more than twenty films together throughout the 1910s and 1920s.
William Worthington (actor)
William Worthington was an American silent film actor and director.-Career:...
-directed The Dragon Painter
The Dragon Painter
The Dragon Painter is a 1919 silent film. It is based on a novel, The Dragon Painter, written by Mary McNeil Fenollosa. It stars Sessue Hayakawa as a mentally disturbed young painter who believes that his fiancée, Hayakawa's wife Tsuru Aoki, is a princess who has been captured and turned into a...
, in which Aoki starred, playing a young woman who convinces an isolated, mentally deranged artist named Tatsu (portrayed by Hayakawa) to come down from the mountains so that she may civilize him and he may further his artistic abilities. Other notable films of the period were The Typhoon (1914), The Vigil (1914), The Geisha (1914), The Chinatown Mystery (1915), His Birthright (1918), and Breath of the Gods (1920).
Throughout the 1910s, Aoki would appear in approximately forty films, often in leading-lady roles which was a first for an Asian actress. Some of her co-stars of the era included such notable names as Marin Sais
Marin Sais
Marin Sais was an American motion picture actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the 1910s and 1920s...
, Frank Borzage
Frank Borzage
Frank Borzage was an American film director and actor.-Biography:Frank Borzage's father, Luigi Borzaga, was born in Ronzone, in 1859. As a stonemason, he sometimes worked in Switzerland; he met his future wife, Maria Ruegg , where she worked in a silk factory...
, Gladys Brockwell
Gladys Brockwell
Gladys Brockwell was an American actress whose career began during the silent film era.-Early life:Born Gladys Lindeman in Brooklyn, New York, she was the daughter of a chorus girl who put her on stage at a very early age. By the time she reached her middle teens, she was already a veteran and...
, Mildred Harris
Mildred Harris
Mildred Harris was an American film actress. Harris began her career in the film industry as a popular child actress at age eleven. At the age of fifteen, she was cast as a harem girl in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance . She appeared as a leading lady through the 1920s but her career slowed with...
, Jack Holt
Jack Holt (actor)
Jack Holt was an American motion picture actor. He was a leading man of silent and sound films, and was known for his many roles in Westerns.-Early life:...
, Jane Wolfe
Jane Wolfe
Jane Wolfe was an American silent film character actress and Thelemite.-Early life:A Pennsylvania Dutch, Wolfe was born in St. Petersburg, Pennsylvania on March 21, 1875...
, Dagmar Godowsky
Dagmar Godowsky
Dagmar Godowsky was an American silent film actress born to Polish Jewish parents in Vilna, Lithuania. She was the daughter of the notable pianist and composer Leopold Godowsky.-Silent film actress:...
, Vola Vale
Vola Vale
Vola Vale was a silent motion picture actress from Buffalo, New York. She was born Vola Smith.-Early career:...
, Florence Vidor
Florence Vidor
Florence Vidor was an American actress.Born Florence Arto, her father, J. P. Arto, was an important executive and she started working in silent movies thanks to her husband, film director King Vidor. She signed her first contract with Vitagraph Studios in 1916...
, Earle Foxe
Earle Foxe
Earle Foxe was an American actor.-Background:Foxe was born Earl Aldrich Fox in Oxford, Ohio, to Charles Aldrich Fox, originally of Flint, Michigan, and Eva May Herron. His older half sister was Ethel May Fox, a music teacher, born in Michigan to Charles Aldrich Fox and Katie Eldridge. Always very...
, and Walter Long
Walter Long (actor)
Walter Huntley Long was an American character actor in films from the 1910s. He was born in Nashua, New Hampshire.-Career:He appeared in many D. W...
.
After a series of moderately successful Ince-produced two-reel serials, Aoki's career in the United States began to falter (while her husband's career began to build momentum), and the couple travelled to France in 1923 and filmed the popular Édouard-Émile Violet-directed drama La Bataille. After returning to America, however, Aoki made only three more films before retiring from the screen to raise her and Hayakawa's three adopted children. Her last silent screen performance was the 1924 release The Danger Line.
Aoki would only return to the screen in 1960 (her first talkie) to once again appear with her husband in the drama Hell To Eternity. She died the following year in Japan of acute peritonitis
Peritonitis
Peritonitis is an inflammation of the peritoneum, the serous membrane that lines part of the abdominal cavity and viscera. Peritonitis may be localised or generalised, and may result from infection or from a non-infectious process.-Abdominal pain and tenderness:The main manifestations of...
at the age of 69.