Editing Sessue Hayakawa (section)

==Beginnings==
Hayakawa and his wife [[Tsuru Aoki]] (1892-1961), were born in Japan but following different paths had, in 1913, both joined a Japanese theater group in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. There they were discovered and put under contract by the pioneering motion picture producer Thomas Ince, who was recruiting “exotic” performers for his new film studio in Santa Monica. (For instance, Ince had also negotiated with the Miller Bros. 101 Ranch Wild West Show, which included a troupe of actual Sioux, to appear in his Westerns in exchange for winter grazing rights). After appearing in a couple of short films, Hayakawa and Aoki made their first feature, [[The Wrath of the Gods (Movie) | The Wrath of the Gods]], released in May of 1914 just weeks after their marriage.