Kintarō Hayakawa (June 10, 1886 – November 23, 1973), known professionally as Sessue Hayakawa, was a Japanese actor. He was a popular star and matinée idol in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading man in the United States and Europe. His "broodingly handsome" good looks and typecasting as a sexually dominant villain made him a heartthrob among American women during a time of racial discrimination, and he became one of the first male sex symbols of Hollywood.

After withdrawing from the Japanese naval academy and attempting suicide at 18, Hayakawa attended the University of Chicago, where he studied political economics in accordance with his wealthy parents' wish that he become a banker. Upon graduating, he traveled to Los Angeles to board a scheduled ship back to Japan, but tried acting in Little Tokyo. Hayakawa impressed Hollywood figures and was signed to star in The Typhoon (1914). He made his breakthrough in The Cheat (1915), and became famous for his roles as a forbidden lover. Hayakawa was one of the highest-paid stars of his time, earning $5,000 per week in 1915 and $2 million per year through his own production company from 1918 to 1921. Because of rising anti-Japanese sentiment and business difficulties, Hayakawa left Hollywood in 1922 and performed on Broadway and in Japan and Europe for many years before making his Hollywood comeback in Daughter of the Dragon (1931).

Of his talkies, Hayakawa is probably best known for his role as Colonel Saito in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the pirate captain in Swiss Family Robinson (1960). Hayakawa starred in over 80 feature films, and three of his films (The Cheat, The Dragon Painter, and The Bridge on the River Kwai) stand in the United States National Film Registry.

Kintarō Hayakawa (早川 金太郎, Hayakawa Kintarō) was born on June 10, 1886, in the village of Nanaura [ja], now part of a town called Chikura, in the city of Minamibōsō in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. From a young age, he yearned to go overseas and took on English studies in preparation. His father was the head of a fishermen's union with some wealth. He had five siblings.

From an early age, Hayakawa's family intended him to become an officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy. However, while a student at the naval academy in Etajima, he swam to the bottom of a lagoon (he grew up in a shellfish diving community) on a dare and ruptured his eardrum. The injury caused him to fail the navy physical. His father felt shame and embarrassment by his son's failure, and this drove a wedge between them. The strained relationship drove the 18-year-old Hayakawa to attempt seppuku (ritual suicide). One evening, Hayakawa entered a shed on his parents' property and prepared the venue. He put his dog outside and attempted to uphold his family's samurai tradition by stabbing himself more than 30 times in the abdomen. The barking dog brought Hayakawa's parents to the scene, and his father used an axe to break down the door, saving his life.

After he recovered from the suicide attempt, Hayakawa moved to the United States and began to study political economics at the University of Chicago to fulfill his family's new wish that he become a banker. While a student, he reportedly played quarterback for the football team and was once penalized for using jujitsu to bring down an opponent. Hayakawa graduated from the University of Chicago in 1912 and subsequently made plans to return to Japan. Hayakawa traveled to Los Angeles and awaited a transpacific steamship. During his stay, he discovered the Japanese Theatre in Little Tokyo and became fascinated with acting and performing plays.

The above account, however, is disputed, in part or whole. According to Professor of Japanese language and literature at UC San Diego Daisuke Miyao, Hayakawa's turn to acting was in reality less eventful; there is no record of Hayakawa having attended University of Chicago or having played sports there. Hayakawa's acting career instead likely followed a series of odd jobs in California: as a dishwasher, waiter, ice cream vendor, and factory worker; his theatrical appearances also were just another temporary pursuit. Another revisionist account by author Orie Nakagawa holds that Hayakawa had always intended to go to California to find work under his older brother in San Francisco; his father, however, convinced him to study at Chicago instead, and Hayakawa did so for a year before leaving to return to his original pursuits.

Hayakawa began his acting career in 1913. It was around this time that Hayakawa first assumed the stage name Sessue (雪洲, Sesshū), meaning "snowy continent" (雪 means "snow" and 洲 means "continent"). One of the productions in which Hayakawa performed was called The Typhoon. Tsuru Aoki, a member of the acting troupe, was so impressed with Hayakawa's abilities and enthusiasm that she enticed film producer Thomas H. Ince to see the play. Ince saw the production and offered to turn it into a silent film with the original cast. Eager to return to Japan, Hayakawa tried to dissuade Ince by requesting the astronomic fee of $500 a week, but Ince agreed to his request.