Frank Tokunaga
Frank Tokunaga | |
|---|---|
| Born | Frank B. Tokunaga |
| Occupation | Actor, director, screenwriter |
| Spouse(s) | |
Frank B. Tokunaga was a Japanese actor, director, and screenwriter who worked in Japan and Hollywood.[1]
Biography[]
Career[]
Frank began his career in show business in 1912 while managing a troupe of Japanese acrobats for Barnum & Bailey, and later worked as an actor in Broadway productions.[2]
Frank then began working at Thomas H. Ince's motion picture studio in Santa Monica, before taking on roles for Louis B. Mayer and then joining Universal's stock company.[3] He did all sorts of work during the silent era, often serving as an interpreter and a location man.[4]
For a time, he returned to Japan, where he was a pioneering writer and director at Nikkatsu Studios.[2] Later on in his career, he'd return to the United States sporadically to work as a character actor in Hollywood films.
Personal life[]
Frank was married to , an actress who was known as the Japanese answer to Mary Pickford in the press. (She was born in Japan but raised in Los Angeles.)[5][6] The pair collaborated on a pair of screenplays: 1925's Tôyô no Karumen and 1926's Zoku Tôyô no Karumen.
Selected filmography[]
As director:
- (1932)
- (1932)
- (1931)
- (1931)
- (1931)
- (1931) (also screenwriter)
- (1930)
- (1930) (also screenwriter)
- (1930)
- (1930)
- Chichi (1929)
- (1929)
- (1929) (also screenwriter)
- (1927)
- (1926)
- (1926)
- (1926)
- (1926)
- (1926)
- (1926)
- (1925)
- (1925)
- (1925)
- (1925) (also screenwriter)
- (1924)
As actor:
- (1961)
- Escapade in Japan (1957)
- The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)
- Hawai · Maree oki kaisen (1942)
- (1940)
- (1940)
- (1938)
- (1926)
- (1924)
- The Woman He Married (1922)
- The Yellow Typhoon (1920)
- The Fatal Sign (1920)
- The Willow Tree (1920)
- (1919)
- The Girl in the Dark (1918)
- Anything Once (1917)
- The Gray Ghost (1917)
- The Flower of Doom (1917)
- The Voice on the Wire (1917)
References[]
- ^ Anderson, Joseph I.; Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (1982). The Japanese Film: Art and Industry. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691007922.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Film Director Plays Farmer in Picture". The Gazette. 11 December 1956. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- ^ "Tokunaga at Home in Hollywood". The Arizona Republic. 19 August 1956. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
- ^ Motography. 1916.
- ^ "Schoolgirl Wins Crown and Japan Director". The New York Daily News. 13 May 1927. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
- ^ "Japanese Movie Star Arrives". The Marion Star. 31 May 1927. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
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