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Tsuru Aoki
Tsuru Aoki (ca. 1915).jpg
Portrait in a newspaper, c. 1916
Born (1892-09-09)September 9, 1892
Died October 18, 1961(1961-10-18) (aged 69)
Tokyo, Japan
Occupation Actress
Years active 1913–1924, 1960
Spouse(s)
(m. 1914)
Signature
Portrait photograph of Tsuru Aoki by Nelson Evans and signed by Aoki (cropped to signature).jpg

Tsuru Aoki (青木 鶴子, Aoki Tsuruko, September 9, 1892 – October 18, 1961) was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career was most prolific in the United States 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.

Life and career

Born in Tokyo, Aoki came to California in 1899 with her uncle, Otojirō Kawakami, his geisha wife, Kawakami Sadayakko, and Otojirō's troupe of actors. At 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, Otojirō 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 City, 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 young Sessue Hayakawa, whom Aoki had acted with onstage at the Japanese Theatre the previous year. The couple began a romantic relationship that culminated in their marriage on May 1, 1914, 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 eventually made more than 20 films together throughout the 1910s and 1920s.

Tsuru Aoki by Albert Witzel
Aoki, c. 1915

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 appeared in approximately 40 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 [fr]-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 returned to the screen in 1960 (her first sound film) to appear with her husband in the drama Hell to Eternity.

Death

Aoki died the following year in Japan of acute Peritonitis at the age of 69.

Filmography

Title Year Role Notes Ref
The Oath of Tsuru San 1913 Tsuru San Short
Lost film
O Mimi San 1914
The Courtship of O San 1914 O San Short
Lost film
The Geisha 1914 Myo Short
Lost film
Love's Sacrifice 1914 Little Faun Lost film
The Wrath of the Gods 1914 Toya San
A Tragedy of the Orient 1914 Kissmoia Short
Lost film
A Relic of Old Japan 1914 Katuma Short
Lost film
Desert Thieves 1914 Owanono Short
Lost film
Star of the North 1914 Star of the North Short
Lost film
The Curse of Caste 1914 Kissmoia Short
Lost film
The Village 'Neath the Sea 1914 Little Fawn Short
Lost film
The Death Mask 1914 Princess Nona Short
Lost film
The Typhoon 1914 N/A
Nipped 1914 San Toy Nakado Short
Lost film
The Vigil 1914 Mira Short
Lost film
Mother of the Shadows 1914 Laughing Moon Short
Lost film
The Last of the Line 1914 Girl at Riverside Short
The Famine 1915 Misao Short
Lost film
The Chinatown Mystery 1915 Woo Short
Lost film
The Beckoning Flame 1915 Janira Short
Lost film
Alien Souls 1916 Yuri Chan Lost film
The Honorable Friend 1916 Toki-Ye Lost film
The Soul of Kura San 1916 Kura-San Lost film
Each to His Kind 1917 Princess Nada Lost film
The Call of the East 1917 O'Mitsu – Arai's Sister Lost film
The Curse of Iku 1918 Omi San Lost film
The Bravest Way 1918 Sat-u
His Birthright 1918 Saki San Incomplete film
A Heart in Pawn 1919 Sada Lost film
The Courageous Coward 1919 Rei Oaki Lost film
The Gray Horizon 1919 O Haru San Lost film
The Dragon Painter 1919 Ume-Ko
Bonds of Honor 1919 Toku-ko Lost film
Locked Lips 1920 Lotus Blossom Lost film
A Tokyo Siren 1920 Asuti Hishuri Lost film
The Breath of the Gods 1920 Yuki Onda Lost film
Screen Snapshots 1920–1921 Herself
Black Roses 1921 Blossom Lost film
Five Days to Live 1922 Ko Ai Lost film
Night Life in Hollywood 1922 Herself Incomplete film
The Battle 1923 La Marquise Yorisaka Lost film
The Danger Line 1924 Marquise Yorisaka Lost film
The Great Prince Shan 1924 Nita Lost film
Sen Yan's Devotion 1924 Sen Yan's Wife Lost film
Hell to Eternity 1960 Mother Une
Decasia 2002 Geisha Archive footage
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