Tsuru Aoki (é '木 鶴å , Aoki Tsuruko, September 9, 1892 â€" October
18, 1961) was a popular Japanese 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.Born in Tokyo, Japan, Aoki came to
California in 1899 with her uncle, OtojirÅ Kawakami, his geisha wife,
Kawakami Sadayakko, and OtojirÅ 's troupe of actors. At the their
first stop in San Francisco, Tsuru performed with the troupe and
assisted Sadayakko at a Palace Hotel tea ceremony where attendees
raved over her "diminutive daintiness." But when the troupe ran into
severe financial difficulties, OtojirÅ made arrangements to have
Tsuru adopted by Toshio Aoki, a sketch artist for a local newspaper.
Tsuru Aoki started taking lessons in ballet dance in New York, when
she went along with her uncle Toshio, who was hired by David Belasco
for The Darling of the Gods. After Toshio's death a reporter looked
after Aoki. 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. She was also responsible for
recruiting Japanese actors for Imperial Japanese Company, a subsidiary
of New York Motion Picture Corporation. 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 â€" 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, based on the novel of the
same title by Sidney McCall, in which Aoki starred as 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 The 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
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.
18, 1961) was a popular Japanese 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.Born in Tokyo, Japan, Aoki came to
California in 1899 with her uncle, OtojirÅ Kawakami, his geisha wife,
Kawakami Sadayakko, and OtojirÅ 's troupe of actors. At the their
first stop in San Francisco, Tsuru performed with the troupe and
assisted Sadayakko at a Palace Hotel tea ceremony where attendees
raved over her "diminutive daintiness." But when the troupe ran into
severe financial difficulties, OtojirÅ made arrangements to have
Tsuru adopted by Toshio Aoki, a sketch artist for a local newspaper.
Tsuru Aoki started taking lessons in ballet dance in New York, when
she went along with her uncle Toshio, who was hired by David Belasco
for The Darling of the Gods. After Toshio's death a reporter looked
after Aoki. 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. She was also responsible for
recruiting Japanese actors for Imperial Japanese Company, a subsidiary
of New York Motion Picture Corporation. 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 â€" 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, based on the novel of the
same title by Sidney McCall, in which Aoki starred as 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 The 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
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.
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