Kintarō Hayakawa (Japanese: 早川 金太郎, Hepburn: Hayakawa Kintarō, June 10, 1886 – November 23, 1973), known professionally as Sessue Hayakawa (早川 雪洲, Hayakawa Sesshū), was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star 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.