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France Nuyen | |
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 Nuyen in 2002 | |
| Born | France Nguyen Van Nga (1939-07-31)31 July 1939 (age 86) Marseille,Bouches-du-Rhône, France |
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| Years active | 1958–2008 |
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| Children | 1 |
France Nuyen (bornFrance Nguyễn Vân Nga on 31 July 1939) is a French-American actress, model, and psychological counselor. She is known to film audiences for playing romantic leads inSouth Pacific (1958),Satan Never Sleeps (1962), andA Girl Named Tamiko (also 1962), and for playing Ying-Ying St. Clair inThe Joy Luck Club (1993). She also originated the title role in the Broadway playThe World of Suzie Wong, based on thenovel of the same name. She is aTheatre World Award winner andGolden Globe Award nominee.
Nuyen was bornFrance Nguyễn Vân Nga inMarseille,[1] the daughter of aRomani French mother and a father fromFrench Indochina. Her father is widely reported to beViet; however, Nuyen identifies him and herself asChinese orHoa.[2] Nuyen’s father abandoned her and her mother when she was young, and she was raised in Marseille by a cousin she calls "anOrchidaceae raiser who was the only person who gave a damn about me." During World War II, her mother and grandfather were persecuted by the Nazis for being Romani.[citation needed]
After leaving school at the age of 11, she began studying art and became an artist's model.[3] She was later signed toCandy Jones’ agency, and moved toNew York City at age 16.[2] In 1955, Nuyen was discovered while modeling at the Beaux Arts School byLife photographerPhilippe Halsman.[4][5] She was featured on the cover of 6 October 1958 issue ofLife.
France Nuyen became a motion picture actress in 1958. In her first role, she appeared as Liat, daughter of Bloody Mary (played byJuanita Hall), in theRodgers and Hammerstein musicalSouth Pacific.[6]
In 1978 Nuyen guest-starred withPeter Falk andLouis Jourdan in theColumbo episode "Murder Under Glass". In 1986 she joined the cast ofSt. Elsewhere as Dr. Paulette Kiem, remaining until the series ended in 1988.
Nuyen appeared in several films includingThe Last Time I Saw Archie (1961)Satan Never Sleeps (1962),A Girl Named Tamiko (1962),Diamond Head (1963),Dimension 5 (1966),Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973),The Joy Luck Club (1993), andThe American Standards (2008).[7]
France Nuyen worked several times with actorWilliam Shatner. At age 19, she was cast in Shatner's 1958Broadway playThe World of Suzie Wong.[8] After a dubious initial opening,[9] the play ran for more than 500 performances and was quite financially successful. Both Nuyen and Shatner later collected notable accolades for their work on the show at the 1959Theatre World Awards.[10]
Nuyen worked again with Shatner across three US television projects, starting with "Elaan of Troyius", a 1968 third season episode of the originalStar Trek in which Nuyen was the title character.[11][12] She would later appear with Shatner in the 1973 made-for-TV movieThe Horror at 37,000 Feet,[13] and afterward in a 1974 episode of theKung Fu series entitled "A Small Beheading".[14]
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Nuyen had many on-and-off relationships, most notably an affair withMarlon Brando in 1960. From 1963 to 1966, Nuyen was married to Thomas Gaspar Morell,[1] a psychiatrist fromNew York, by whom she has a daughter, Fleur, who resides inCanada and works as a film make-up artist. She met her second husband,Robert Culp, while appearing in four episodes of his television seriesI Spy. They married in 1967, but divorced three years later. In 1986, Nuyen earned amaster's degree inclinical psychology and began a second career as a counselor for abused women and children and women in prison. She received a Woman of the Year award in 1989 for her psychology work. In theLife cover story on Nuyen, she is quoted as saying a proverb she also repeated in character as a spy in theI Spy episode "Magic Mirror": "I am Chinese. I am a stone. I go where I am kicked."
As of 2019, she resides inBeverly Hills.[2]
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