Kato is a fictional character from The Green Hornet franchise. The character has appeared with the Green Hornet in radio, film, television, book and comic book versions. Kato is the Green Hornet's crime-fighting sidekick, and Britt Reid's manservant in civilian life, and has been played by a number of actors. On radio, Kato was initially played by Raymond Hayashi, then Roland Parker who had the role for most of the run, and in the later years Mickey Tolan and Paul Carnegie. Keye Luke took the role in the movie serials, and in the television series, he was portrayed by Bruce Lee. Jay Chou played Kato in the 2011 Green Hornet film.
Character history Kato is Britt Reid's valet, who doubles as The Green Hornet's masked driver and partner to help him in his vigilante adventures, disguised as the activities of a racketeer and his chauffeur/bodyguard/enforcer. According to the storyline, years before the events depicted in the series, Britt Reid saved Kato's life while traveling in the Far East. Depending on the version of the story, this prompts Kato to become Reid's assistant or friend. In the anthology book, The Green Hornet Chronicles from Moonstone Books, author Richard Dean Starr's story "Nothing Gold Can Stay: An Origin Story of Kato" explores the character's background and how he ends up living in America, suggesting that Kato met Britt Reid on a later trip back to his homeland while in search of his mother.
Radio program George W. Trendle, the owner of radio station WXYZ in Michigan first created and produced "The Green Hornet" show in 1936, with the scripts being written by Fran Striker. The show became so popular it ran for nearly two decades and spun off at least two films. This was Trendle and Striker's second big radio hit; their first was "The Lone Ranger".
Nationality In the 1936 premiere of the radio program, Kato was presented as being Japanese. By 1939, the invasion of China by the Empire of Japan made this bad for public relations, and from that year until 1945 "Britt Reid's Japanese valet" in the show's opening was then simply identified by the announcer as his "faithful valet". The first of Universal's two movie serials, produced in 1939 but not released to theaters until early 1940, referred in passing to Kato being "a Korean". By 1941, Kato had begun to be referred to as Filipino. In the comics published by Harvey Comics, Kato was also described as Filipino. A long-standing, but false, urban legend maintained that the switch from one to the other occurred immediately after the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. In serials, Kato was played by Chinese-born American actor Keye Luke. In the 2011 film, Kato (played by Taiwanese Jay Chou) tells Britt Reid that he was born in the Chinese city of Shanghai; Reid replies by saying that he "love[s] Japan".
Abilities
In several versions of the story, Kato is also a mechanic, with the creations of both the special automobile, the Black Beauty, and the Hornet's trademark sleeping gas and the gun that delivers it attributed to him. In the TV series, Kato (portrayed by Bruce Lee) is not at all a mechanic but a professional servant, a highly skilled driver, and a master of the art of war. In the television series, he also becomes an expert in martial arts, which was implied in the first film serial with his use of a tranquilizing "chop" to the back of a thug's neck. In The Green Hornet Strikes! of the Big Little Book series, published in 1940, it is said that Kato was a practitioner of jiujitsu,in the Helnit comics, Britt Reid said that she learned jiujitsu from Kato. In the Harvey Comics, Kato shows knowledge of judo. The comic book published by Gold Key Comics says that the Kato in the TV series practiced kung fu.
In other media
Television series
The televised series of The Green Hornet was created and produced by William Dozier, the owner of Greenway Productions, for ABC. It ran from September 1966 to March 1967 and was then canceled after that one season. Van Williams played the Green Hornet and Bruce Lee played Kato. Dozier was also the creator of the more popular Batman television series. Even though he had the Green Hornet and Kato appear on Batman three times, they never acquired a large audience. It was due in part to Bruce Lee's portrayal of this character that the Green Hornet became more well-known, and that martial arts became more popular in the United States in the 1960s. Indeed, Lee refused to follow the American director's expectation of fisticuff fights and insisted that he be allowed to use his martial arts skills. They became so popular with the audience that Van Williams, who played the Green Hornet, asked to be taught some moves. In a crossover episode of Batman from the same time and companies, Kato has a battle with Robin that ends in a draw (the same thing happens simultaneously with their senior partners). This was in part because Lee refused to participate in a fight that showed Asian-style martial arts being defeated; the original script had the Green Hornet and Kato being beaten by Batman and Robin. The popular impression Lee made at the time is demonstrated by one of the TV series tie-in coloring books produced by Watkins & Strathmore. It is titled Kato's Revenge Featuring the Green Hornet. The Green Hornet's success in Hong Kong, where it was popularly known as The Kato Show, led to Lee starring in the feature films that would make him a pop culture icon. This show launched Bruce Lee's adult television and film career.
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