Back Before Valentino, One Of Cinema’s First Heartthrobs Was Asian-American
“America’s teenage girls and swooning housewives fell for his charms, but French intellectuals like the novelist Colette and Polish-born filmmaker Jean Epstein sang his praises too. … If People magazine had existed during the late 1910s, [Sessue] Hayakawa would have undoubtedly been declared the ‘Sexiest Man Alive.'”