was a Japanese
Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was active at the outset of the
American film industry. He was the first Asian actor to find stardom in the United States and Europe. He is the first
Asian American as well as the first
Japanese American movie star and the first Asian American leading man. His "broodingly handsome" good looks and typecasting as a sinister villain with sexual dominance made him a heartthrob among American women, and the first male sex symbol of Hollywood, several years in advance of
Rudolph Valentino.