Biography
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 ...
Known For
Complete Filmography
Beam Me Up, Sulu
2025
as Self
In 1985, George Takei helped a group of young Trekkies make a fan film—then the footage vanished. Nearly 40 years later, the search to recover it open...
Yorktown: A Time to Heal
2022
as Admiral Heilachiro Nogura
Having escaped capture by the Klingons, a damaged Starfleet reconnaissance probe crashes undetected on the planet Pahl III. Hikaru Sulu, serving as fi...
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
2019
as (archive footage)
A history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
The People I've Slept With
2009
as Charles Yang
The People I've Slept With - a promiscuous woman who finds herself with an unplanned pregnancy and needs to figure out who the baby daddy is...NOW. An...
Hollywood Chinese
2007
as Self
Hollywood Chinese is a captivating look at cinema history through the lens of the Chinese American experience. Directed by triple Sundance award-winni...
The Slanted Screen
2006
as Himself
From silent film star Sessue Hayakawa to Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle, the Slanted Screen examines the portrayal Asian men in film and televisio...
Brother
2000
as Sugimoto
A Japanese Yakuza gangster's deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his broth...
Qigong: Ancient Chinese Healing for the 21st Century
1999
as Narrator
This documentary introduces viewers to qigong, a 5,000-year-old method of cultivating and circulating the life energy called qi. It relates some of th...
Mulan
1998
as General Li (voice)
To save her father from certain death in the army, a young woman secretly enlists in his place and becomes one of China's greatest heroines in the pro...
Drive
1997
as Mr. Lau
A prototype enhanced human, on the run from Chinese-hired hit men, hooks up with a dread-locked bystander, and the two of them elude their pursuers na...
Space Marines
1996
as Ambassador Nakamura
Space pirates, led by diabolical Colonel Fraser, take over a cargo ship carrying anti-matter explosive and an important official. Space marines, led b...
Midnight Man
1995
as Mao Mak
When the police start a crackdown on Yakuza activities, a killer starts killing the cops forcing a martial-arts officer to fight back.
Cage II: The Arena of Death
1994
as Tin Lum Yin
After being tricked into thinking his best friend, and caretaker is dead, Vietnam Vet, and mentally disabled person has no other choice but to enter T...
Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die
1994
as Det. Whoo
The Harts find themselves in the middle of a dangerous murder plot, but it isn't clear if the plot it a famous author's fictional murder-mystery, or a...
China Cry
1990
as Dr. Sung
Young Sung Neng Yee, who is brought as part of a wealthy Chinese family. She is eager to become part of Mao Tze Tung's "new society", but soon becomes...
Home from the Eastern Sea
1990
as Narrator
This documentary covers the story of Chinese-, Japanese-, and Filipino-Americans in Washington state, from their first arrivals, to the discrimination...
Cage
1989
as Tin Lum Yin
A GI in Vietnam saves his buddy's life, but in the process is shot in the head. The injury results in brain damage to the point where he basically has...
Slaying the Dragon
1988
A highly-critical documentary about the history of Asian-American actresses in Hollywood. Features interviews with pioneering Asian-American actresses...
Die Hard
1988
as Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi
NYPD cop John McClane's plan to reconcile with his estranged wife is thrown for a serious loop when, minutes after he arrives at her offices Christmas...
The Renegades
1982
as Jimmy Lee
In this drama, undercover investigators are recruited from the streets to prevent arms smugglers from getting their weapons to street gangs.
Tomorrow's Child
1982
as Donald Shibura
The wife of a research geneticist agrees to the experimental procedure of a 'test-tube baby' by having her fetus brought to full term in a glass jar i...
Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb
1980
as Field Marshal Abehata
The story of Col. Paul Tibbets and his crew who flew the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, bringing World War II t...
Samurai
1979
as Takeo Chisato
Lee Cantrell, a young San Francisco attorney by day, at night becomes a samurai warrior, and battles a crazed multi-millionaire who is planning to des...
Midway
1976
as Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo
This war drama depicts the U.S. and Japanese forces in the naval Battle of Midway, which became a turning point for Americans during World War II.
The Killer Who Wouldn't Die
1976
as David Lao
After his wife is killed in a mysterious bomb explosion, a cop leaves the department and starts a charter boat service. When an undercover agent who i...
Matt Helm
1975
as Tom McCauley
In this pilot film for the later series, a former secret agent, now a private investigator, is hired to protect a beautiful film star and gets involve...
The Yakuza
1974
as Goro
When George Tanner does business with high-ranking Yakuza Tono, Tono kidnaps his daughter, and George summons his old friend, private eye Harry Kilmer...
The Questor Tapes
1974
as Dr. Chen
Project Questor is brainchild of the genius Dr. Vaslovik: he developed plans to build an android super-human. Although he's disappeared and half of hi...
Lost Horizon
1973
as Brother To-Lenn
While escaping war-torn China, a group of Europeans crash in the Himalayas, where they are rescued and taken to the mysterious Valley of the Blue Moon...
The Young Lawyers
1969
as Lee Ahn
Attorney Michael Cannon leaves his Boston law firm to become director of the Neighborhood Law Office, where he guides three law students on a case inv...
Operation Heartbeat
1969
as Chief Resident
Lawsuits fly when a widow believes a gifted surgeon allowed her husband to die so his heart could be transplanted into the doctor's ailing mentor and ...
Escape to Mindanao
1968
as Lt. Takahashi
Two American POWs break out of a Japanese jungle prison camp with their captors' secret decoding device and try to reach freedom despite being slowed ...
Manila, Open City
1968
as Captain Murakami
War drama set in the closing stages of World War Two. As Allied Forces are nearing the defeat of the Japanese Army in Manila, the Japanese Empire's so...
Nobody's Perfect
1968
as Diver Toshi O'Hara
This military service comedy chronicles the misadventures of the U.S.S. Bustard in Japan. The crew has stolen a Buddha statue from a Japanese village,...
The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Chinese Junk
1967
as George Ti Ming
The Hardy Boys become owners of the Chinese junk Hai Hau. They head to New York City and go spelunking to break up a gang of criminals.
Death Walks in Laredo
1967
as Lester Koto
Whitaker Selby, Lester Kato, and Etienne Devereaux, three eccentric gunmen, discover they are brothers. Their father left them all a mine located in L...
Paradise, Hawaiian Style
1966
as Danny Kohana
Blacklisted by the major airlines for endlessly chasing female staff, pilot Rick Richards returns to Hawaii to set up a helicopter charter company wit...
Carol for Another Christmas
1964
as Japanese Doctor
Daniel Grudge, a wealthy industrialist and fierce isolationist long embittered by the loss of his son in World War II, is visited by three ghosts on C...
Flower Drum Song
1961
as Wang Ta
A young woman arrives in San Francisco's Chinatown, from Hong Kong, with the intention of marrying a rakish nightclub owner, unaware he is involved wi...
Bridge to the Sun
1961
as Hidenari Terasaki
Tells the true story of American Gwen Terasaki, who falls in love with, then marries a Japanese diplomat. When World War II breaks out, they encounter...
Cry for Happy
1961
as Harue
Army photographers on leave in Japan take over a geisha house.
Walk Like a Dragon
1960
as Cheng Lu
California, 1870s. The cowboy Lincoln 'Linc' Bartlett finds out there's a slave auction of Chinese women in San Francisco and he intervenes and purcha...
The Crimson Kimono
1959
as Detective Joe Kojaku
Two detectives clash over the hunt for a burlesque dancer’s killer in Los Angeles’ Japanese district.