Nancy Kwan | |||||||||||||||||
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| 關家蒨 | |||||||||||||||||
 Kwan in 1964 | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1939-05-19)May 19, 1939 (age 86) | ||||||||||||||||
| Education | |||||||||||||||||
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1960–present | ||||||||||||||||
| Known for | |||||||||||||||||
| Spouses | |||||||||||||||||
| Children | Bernhard Pock (1963-1996) | ||||||||||||||||
| Relatives | Loke Yew (great-grandfather) | ||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 關家蒨 | ||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 关家蒨 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Website | nancy-kwan | ||||||||||||||||
Nancy Kwan Ka-shen (Chinese:關家蒨;Jyutping:Gwaan1 Gaa1sin6; born May 19, 1939)[1] is aChinese-American actress whose career benefited fromHollywood's casting of moreAsian roles in the 1960s, especially in comedies. She was considered anEastern sex symbol in the 1960s.
Kwan was born inHong Kong on May 19, 1939,[2] and grew up inKowloon Tong district.[3] Kwan's father was Kwan Wing-hong,[4] aCantonese architect[5] and her mother was Marquita Scott, aWhite British[6] model of English and Scottish ancestry.[7][note 1] Kwan Wing-hong was the son of lawyer Kwan King-sun and Juliann Loke Yuen-ying, daughter of business executiveLoke Yew. He attendedCambridge University and met Scott in London. The two married and moved to Hong Kong, where Wing-hong became a prominent architect.[7] In that era,interracial marriage was not widely accepted.[8] Nancy has an older brother, Ka-keung.[9]
In 1941, Kwan's parents divorced when she was two years old.[9] Scott escaped to England during theWorld War II Japanese invasion and never rejoined the family.[7] Her mother later moved to New York and married an American.[10]
At Christmas 1941, in fear of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong during World War II, Wing Hong, in the guise of acoolie, escaped from Hong Kong to North China with his two children, whom he hid inwicker baskets.[7][9] Kwan and her brother were transported by servants, evading Japanese sentries.[7][9] They remained in exile in western China for five years until the war ended, after which they returned to Hong Kong and lived in a spacious, contemporary home her father had designed.[7][9] Remaining in Hong Kong with the children, her father married a Chinese woman, whom Kwan called "Mother".[7][11] Her father and her stepmother raised her, in addition to her brother and five half-brothers and half-sisters.[7] Five of Kwan's siblings became lawyers.[3]
All of my brothers and sisters are lawyers. The whole family. So I'm the black sheep.[12] – Nancy Kwan
Except during World War II, Kwan had a comfortable early life. Cared for by anamah (阿嬤), a woman who looks after children, Kwan owned a pony and spent her summers in resorts inBorneo, Macao, and Japan.[7] An affluent man, her father owned a several-acre hilltop property in Kowloon.[13] In her youth, she was called "Ka-shen".[14] She wrote in 1960 that as an eight-year-old, herfortune-teller "predicted travel, fame, and fortune for me".[15][note 2]
Kwan attended the CatholicMaryknoll Convent School until she was 13 years old,[7] after which she travelled toKingsmoor School inGlossop, England[7] a private boarding school that had offered places to refugees in 1938 and 1939,[16] either at no cost or at a reduced rate, that her brother Ka-keung was then attending.[10] Her brother studied to become an architect and she studied to become a dancer.[10]
Kwan's introduction totai chi sparked a desire to learn ballet.[9] When Kwan was 18, she pursued her dream of becoming a ballet dancer by attending theRoyal Ballet School in London. She studied performing arts subjects such as stage make-up and danced every day for four hours. Her studies at the Royal Ballet School ran concurrently with her high-school studies. Because Kwan's high school had deep connections with nearby theatre companies, Kwan was able to take small parts in several of their productions.[note 3] Upon graduating from high school, she took a luxurious trip to France, Italy, and Switzerland. Afterwards, she travelled back to Hong Kong,[2] where she started a ballet school.[17]
Stage producerRay Stark posted an advertisement in theHong Kong Tiger Standard (later renamedThe Standard) regarding auditions for the character Suzie Wong for a play. The ad asked applicants to present their pictures, résumés, and proportions.[10] Kwan submitted her application[10] and actually met Stark in a film studio that her father had constructed.[18][19] After auditioning for Stark, she was asked to screen test to play a character in the then-upcoming filmThe World of Suzie Wong.[2] Stark preferred Kwan over the other applicants because she "would have more universal acceptance". Another applicant, French actressFrance Nuyen, played the stage version of the role and had been called a "businessman's delight" by a number of reviewers. Stark disliked this characterization, as well as "happy harlot" characters such asMelina Mercouri inNever on Sunday. Stark wanted an Asian actress because reshaping the eyes of a white actress wouldn't look authentic. He also praised Kwan's features: an "acceptable face" and "being alluringly leggy [and] perfectly formed".[13]
For each screen test, Kwan, accompanied by her younger sister, was chauffeured to the studio by her father's driver. Stark characterized Kwan's first screen test as "pretty dreadful" but one that hinted at her potential. After four weeks of training with drama teachers, including hours of lessons withPulitzer Prize–winning playwright–screenwriterJohn Patrick, Kwan's second screen test was a significant improvement.
Although she had not yet become an actress, Stark said, there was a "development of her authority". Once, upon viewing her screen test, Kwan said, "I'm a terrible girl" and "squealed with embarrassment"; acting as a prostitute was a vastly different experience from her comfortable life in Hong Kong. The reaction prompted Stark to forbid her from viewing thedailies. Kwan did a third screen test after four months had passed, and he producers couldn't decide whether to choose Kwan or Nuyen.[13]
Owing to Kwan's lack of acting experience, at Stark's request[20] she travelled to the United States, where she attended acting school in Hollywood[2] and resided at theHollywood Studio Club,[21] achaperoneddormitory with other apprentices actresses.[2] She later moved to New York.[2] Kwan signed a seven-year contract[22] with Stark'sSeven Arts Productions[11] at a starting salary of $300 a week,[22] even though she was not given one, or any particular role.[13] In 2005,Edward S. Feldman and Tom Barton characterized Kwan's wages and her employment as "indentured servitude".[22] In a retrospective interview, Kwan toldGoldsea that she had no prior acting experience and that the $300 a week salary was "a lot of money to me then".[2]
WhenThe World of Suzie Wong began to tour, Kwan was assigned the part of abargirl. In addition to her smallsupporting character role, Kwan became an understudy for the production's female lead, France Nuyen.[2] Though Stark and the male leadWilliam Holden preferred Kwan despite her somewhat apprehensive demeanor during the screen test, she did not get the role. Paramount favored the more accomplished France Nuyen, who had been widely praised for her performance in the filmSouth Pacific (1958).[9] Stark acquiesced to Paramount's wishes.[13] Nuyen received the role and Kwan later took Nuyen'a place on Broadway. In a September 1960 interview withAssociated Press journalistBob Thomas, she said, "I was bitterly disappointed, and I almost quit and went home when I didn't get the picture."[19] Kwan did not receive the lead role because Stark believed she was too inexperienced at the time.[20] Nuyen won the title role in the ensuing movie because of her powerful portrayal of Suzie Wong during the tour. She moved to England to film the movie, leaving an opening for Kwan to ascend to the lead female role in the touring production. In 1959,[17] one month after Nuyen was selected for the film role[13] and while Kwan was touring inToronto, Stark told her to screen test again for the film.[2] Kwan responded to his phone call from London, asking, "How can I come? I'm in this show." To provide a pretext for Kwan's sudden hiatus from the touring production, Stark sent acablegram to her superiors saying her father had become ill and had been hospitalized. Kwan later recalled in an interview about three years later, "So I went to the manager and told him a lie. It was not very nice, but what could I do?"[13] After Kwan accepted the role, the Broadway play producer sued her for leaving with little notice.[19]
Nuyen, who was in an unstable relationship withMarlon Brando, had anervous breakdown and was fired from the role because of her erratic behavior.[18][note 4] The film's director,Jean Negulesco, was fired and replaced byRichard Quine.[18] Kwan, who had never previously been in a film, got the part by beating out over 30 actresses from Hollywood, France, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.[24] On February 15, 1960, she began filming the movie in London with co-starWilliam Holden.[25]
During the filming, Kwan's only trouble was a lingerie scene. Robert Lomax, as played by Holden, tears off her Western dress and says, "Wear your own kind of clothing! Don't try to copy some European girl!" Director Richard Quine was displeased with Kwan's underclothes: She wore a full-slip rather than a half-slip and bra. Finding the attire too modest and unrealistic, he asked Stark to talk to Kwan. Stark discovered Kwan taking refuge in her dressing room, sobbing hysterically . He warned her, "Nancy, wear the half-slip and bra or you're off the picture. France Nuyen is no longer in it, remember? If you're difficult you'll be off it too. All we want to do is make you the best actress possible." Kwan bashfully returned to the set after lunch having made the requested wardrobe changes and acting as if the events of the morning's shoot had never happened.[13]
Owing to Kwan's evident Eurasian appearance, the film's make-up artists attempted to make her look more Chinese.[26] They plucked her eyebrows and sketched a line across her forehead.[13] In movies where Kwan plays Asian roles, the makeup artists reshaped her brown eyes. Gossip columnistHedda Hopper wrote that Kwan, as a Eurasian, does not look fully Asian or European. Hopper wrote that the "scattering of freckles across her tip-tilted nose give her an Occidental flavor".[11] The production spanned five months, an unusually lengthy shoot for that time.[3]
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The World of Suzie Wong was a "box-office sensation". Critics lavished praise on Kwan for her performance.[26] She was given the nickname "Chinese Bardot" for her unforgettable dance numbers.[9] Kwan and two other actresses,Ina Balin andHayley Mills, were awarded theGolden Globe for the "Most Promising Newcomer–Female" in 1960. The following year, she was voted a "Star of Tomorrow".[26] Scholar Jennifer Leah Chan ofNew York University wrote thatSuzie provided an Asian actress—Kwan—with the most significant Hollywood role since actressAnna May Wong's success in the 1920s.[27]
FollowingThe World of Suzie Wong, Kwan was totally unprepared for fame. While she was purchasing fabric in a store onNathan Road, she found people staring at her from the window. Wondering what they were staring at, it suddenly struck her that she was the focus of attention.[3] Kwan remarked that inBeverly Hills, she could walk without attracting attention. She reasoned, "[It] is better in America because America is much bigger, I guess".[13] When people addressed her father after watching the film, they frequently called him "Mr. Wong", a name that really annoyed him.[3] Kwan said in a 1994 interview with theSouth China Morning Post that even decades after her film debut and despite her having done over 50 films in the interim, viewers continued to send her many letters about the film.[28]
The scene of Kwan, in repose on adavenport and adorned in a dazzlingcheongsam, while showing a "deliciously decadent flash of thigh", became an iconic image.[3] Similarly attired,[10] Kwan appeared on the cover ofLife magazine's October 1960 issue, cementing her status as asex symbol for the 1960s.[1] Nicknamed the "Suzie Wong dress",[29] the cheongsam in the portrait spawned thousands of copycat promotional projects.[3] In a 1962 interview, Kwan said she "loved" thecheongsam, calling it a "national costume". She explained that it "has slits because Chinese girls have pretty legs" and "the slits show their legs".[10][note 5]
Many Chinese and Chinese-Americans were upset after seeing the depiction of Chinese women as promiscuous. Tom Lisanti andLouis Paul write that the wave of unfavorable media attention drove filmmakers to try to capitalize on the attention and create an even bigger production for Kwan's next film. In 1961, she starred inFlower Drum Song playing a similar role. The film was distinguished for being the "first big-budget American film" with an all-Asian cast.[26][note 6] Kwan did not have any songs in the musical; the vocals for Linda Low were performed byB. J. Baker.[31] ComparingSuzie Wong andFlower Drum Song, she found the latter much harder because the girl she played was "more go-getter". Her prior ballet education provided a strong foundation for her role inFlower Drum Song, where she had much space to dance.[32][note 7]
After starring inThe World of Suzie Wong andFlower Drum Song, Kwan experienced a meteoric rise in fame. Scholar Jennifer Leah Chan ofNew York University chronicled the media attention Kwan received after starring in two Hollywood films, writing that Kwan's fame peaked in 1962. In addition to being featured on the cover ofLife magazine, Kwan was the subject of a 1962 article inMcCall's, entitled "The China Doll that Men Like".[33]
As a Hollywood icon, Kwan lived in a house atopLaurel Canyon in Los Angeles. She drove a white British sports car and danced to Latin music. She enjoyed listening toJohnny Mathis records and readingChinese history books.[10] In 1962 (when she was 22), Kwan was dating Swiss actorMaximilian Schell. In an interview that year, she said she did not intend to get married until she was older, perhaps 24 or 25. She said a number of Americans married just to leave home or to "make love". Kwan said this was problematic because she found dialogue and an ability to appreciate and express humor important in a marriage: "You can't just sit around and stare at walls between love-making."[32]
In 1961, Kwan offered to work as a teacher forKing's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. The infantry was training for military deployment in Malaya (now part ofMalaysia), and the regiment's commanders believed that the infantrymen should be taught the Chinese language and how to handle chopsticks. Captain Anthony Hare announced that the infantry needed a teacher – an attractive one. He later acknowledged that he specified that the teacher "must be attractive" so that more soldiers would attend the sessions. Kwan, in Hollywood at the time, replied via cable: "Please consider me a candidate as Chinese teacher for Yorkshire Light Infantry. I am fluent in Chinese, fabulous with chopsticks, and fond of uniforms." Captain Hare commented, "Miss Kwan is too beautiful. I think she would be too much of a distraction." Her belated interest was not considered as the infantry had already accepted the application of another Chinese woman.[17]
In 1963, Nancy Kwan's long hair, famous fromThe World of Suzie Wong, was chopped into a sharp modernist bob by Vidal Sassoon for the filmThe Wild Affair, at the request of director John Krish.[34] Herbob cut in the film drew widespread media attention for the "severe geometry of her new hairstyle".[35][36] Sassoon's signature bob became known as "the Kwan cut", "the Kwan bob", or just "the Kwan"; photographs of Kwan's new hairstyle appeared in both theAmerican andBritish editions ofVogue.[37][34]
Kwan's success in her early career couldn't be replicated in later years,[38] due to the cultural nature of 1960s America.[citation needed] Ann Lloyd and Graham Fuller wrote in their bookThe Illustrated Who's Who of the Cinema: "Her Eurasian beauty and impish sense of humor could not sustain her stardom".[39] Her later films were more varied,[39] comprising movie and television roles in the US and Europe.[1] Kwan discovered that she had to journey to Europe and Hong Kong to escape the ethnictypecasting in Hollywood that limited her to largely Asian roles in spite of her Eurasian appearance.[9][38]
Her third movie was the Britishdrama filmThe Main Attraction (1962) with Pat Boone. She played an Italian circus performer who was Boone's love interest. While she was filming the movie in theAustrian Alps, she met Peter Pock, ahotelier and ski instructor, with whom she immediately fell in love. She reflected, "The first time I saw that marvelous-looking man I said, 'That's for me.'" After several weeks, the two married and took up residence inInnsbruck,Tyrol, Austria. Kwan later gave birth to Bernhard "Bernie" Pock.[40] In December 1963, Pock was constructing aluxury hotel in the TyroleanAlps. During Christmas of that year, Nancy Kwan visited that location and was able to participate in several pre-1964 Winter Olympics events despite being busy with work. Her contract with film production company Seven Arts led her to travel around the world to film movies. She found the separation from her son, Bernie, who was not yet a year old, difficult. She said, "He's coming into a time when he's beginning to assert his personality." Fair-skinned and blue-eyed, Bernie more strongly resembled his father.[11]
In 1963, Kwan starred as the title character inTamahine. The role called for her to be blue-eyed and so she went to theoptician to get thecontact lenses needed for that look.[10] Playing an English-Tahitian ward of the head master at an old English public school, she was praised by theBoston Globe for her "charming depict[ion]" of the character.[41][note 8]
InFate Is the Hunter (1964), her seventh film, Kwan played anichthyologist. It was her first role as a Eurasian character.[11][note 9] Kwan's roles were predominantly comic characters, which she said were more difficult roles than "straight dramatic work" owing to the necessity of more vigor and precise timing.[11]
Kwan metBruce Lee when he choreographed the martial arts moves in the filmThe Wrecking Crew (1969).[28][42] As part of Kwan's role in the film, she foughtSharon Tate's character by throwing aflying kick. Her martial arts move was based not on karate training, but on her background in dance. Author Darrell Y. Hamamoto noted that this "ironically" tweaked Kwan's "dragon-lady role" number by notably replacingKung Fu with Western dance moves.[42] She became close friends with Lee and met his wife and two children. In the 1970s, both Kwan and Lee returned to Hong Kong, where they remained friends.[28]
Kwan divorced Peter Pock in June 1968.[43] She married Hollywood screenwriterDavid Giler in July 1970 in acivil ceremony inCarson City, Nevada. The marriage was Kwan's second and Giler's first.[44] They divorced in 1971.[45]
That year, Kwan returned to Hong Kong with her son because her father was sick. She initially intended to remain for one year to assist him, but ultimately remained for about seven years.[46] She did not stop working, starring as Dr. Sue in the filmWonder Women (1973). While in Hong Kong, Kwan founded a production company,[46] Nancy Kwan Films,[5] which made ads largely targeted at the Southeast Asian market. In the 1980s, she returned to the United States,[47] where she played characters in the television seriesFantasy Island,Knots Landing andTrapper John, M.D..[5]
In 1976 Kwan married Norbert Meisel, an actor, director, screenwriter, and producer.[48] Like her first husband Peter Pock, as well as her former fiancé Maximilian Schell, Meisel was Austrian. "I have my Austrian karma," she said in a 2021 interview. "I think it's lifetime."[49]
In a 1993 interview with theSt. Petersburg Times, Kwan remarked that her son Bernie was frequently called a "blond, blue-eyed Chinese" because he could speak the language fluently. In 1979, the two returned to the United States because Kwan wanted him to finish his schooling there. Bernie was an actor, a martial artist, and astunt performer.[46] For the 1991 action comedy filmFast Getaway, fellow stunt performer Kenny Bates and he clasped hands and lept off theRoyal Gorge Bridge. They fell 900 ft before being restrained bywire rope 200 ft over theArkansas River.[50][51] Bates said their stunt was the "highest 'double drop' ever attempted".[51] Kwan and Bernie recorded a tape abouttai chi.[46]
In 1987, Nancy Kwan co-founded the restaurant Joss Cuisine. Kwan, producer Ray Stark, and restaurateur and Hong Kong film directorCecile Tang financed the restaurant, located on the Sunset Strip inWest Hollywood.[52]
Kwan has sporadically recordedaudiobooks.[8] In 1995, Kwan recorded an audiobook forAnchee Min's memoirRed Azalea in whatPublishers Weekly called a "coolly understated performance that allows the story's subtleties and unexpected turns to work by themselves".[53] In 2011, she recorded an audiobook for the 1989 memoirWhen Heaven and Earth Changed Places byLe Ly Hayslip with Jay Wurts. TheSan Francisco Chronicle's Patricia Holt praised Kwan's intonation in her delivery, writing that "Kwan's faint Asian accent and careful pronunciation of Vietnamese words make Hayslip's weaving of her past and present lives a riveting experience".[54]
In 1993, Kwan played Gussie Yang, a "tough-talking, soft-hearted Hong Kong restaurateur", in the fictionalDragon: The Bruce Lee Story.[46] She played a pivotal role in the film,[55] a character based on Seattle restaurateur and political leaderRuby Chow[1] who hires Bruce Lee as adishwasher and gives him the funds to open a martial arts school.[55]
In May 1993, she completed a film about Eurasians entitledLoose Woman With No Face, which she wrote, directed, and starred in.[55] She called the film "a slice of life about Euro-Asians in Los Angeles, and it's something I know about".[46][55]
Around that time, Kwan was asked about whether she was confronted with racism as a leading Asian Hollywood actress in the 1960s. Kwan replied, "That was 30 years ago and (prejudice) wasn't such a heavy issue then. I was just in great Broadway productions that were turned into films. I personally never felt any racial problems in Hollywood."[17] In the 1990s, the number of parts available to her dried up. She attributed this to both her age and the movie business' aversion to casting Asians in non-Asian roles. In earlier years, she had been able to play an Italian and a Tahitian.
In the 1990s, there were more Hollywood films about Asians. Kwan could have capitalized on the trend through a role in the 1993 filmThe Joy Luck Club. But because the filmmakers refused to excise a line callingThe World of Suzie Wong a "...horrible racist film," she passed on the role.[56][note 10]
In November 1993, Kwan co-starred in the two-character playArthur and Leila about two siblings who struggle with their Chinese identities. It debuted in the Bay Front Theater inFort Mason, San Francisco, and moved to Los Angeles two weeks later.[56][note 11]Variety reviewer Julio Martinez praised Kwan for her ability to "flo[w] easily between haughty sophistication and girlish insecurity".[61]
In 1994, an article in theSouth China Morning Post said that she preserved her "dancer's figure" through the Chinese martial arttai chi and frequent dance sessions.[28] That year, she assumed the role of 52-year-old Martha inSingapore Repertory Theatre's showing ofWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, an "intense psychological play" by Edward Albee.[47]
In 1995, she produced and acted in the feature filmRebellious. Her son Bernie was the director, writer, and star of the film, which was co-produced by Norbert Meisel.[62]
In 1996, when he was 33,[63] Kwan's son, Bernie, died after contracting AIDS from a girlfriend Kwan had advised him to avoid.[8] Four years after his death, poet and actressAmber Tamblyn compiled her debut poetry bookOf the Dawn and dedicated it to Pock. Tamblyn had acted inRebellious when she was nine, alongside her fatherRuss Tamblyn.[62] Calling Pock a "big brother", she said he was the "first guy" to convince her to share her poems.[64]
Nancy Kwan has appeared on television commercials into the 1990s and appeared in commercials for the cosmetic "Oriental Pearl Cream".[65][66][note 12]
Kwan has been involved in philanthropy for AIDS awareness. In 1997, she publishedA Celebration of Life – Memories of My Son, a book about her son who died after being infected with HIV. She contributed the profits from both the book and a movie she made about him to support the study of AIDS and the promotion of AIDS awareness.[1]
On March 17, 2006,cheongsam-wearing Kwan and her husband, Norbert Meisel, attended the debut performance ofHong Kong Ballet's depiction ofSuzie Wong atSha Tin Town Hall.[68] Kwan toldThe Kansas City Star in 2007 that she had not considered retiring, saying that it leads to trouble. Retirees, she professed, frequently find themselves with nothing to do because they have not readied themselves for it. Kwan said, "I hope I'm working until the day I die. If work is a pleasure, why not?"[4] In 2006, Kwan reunited withFlower Drum Song co-star James Shigeta to performA. R. Gurney's two-person playLove Letters. They performed the play at Los Angeles'East West Players and San Francisco'sHerbst Theatre.[69]
Kwan appeared inArthur Dong's 2007 documentaryHollywood Chinese, where she joined other Chinese luminaries in discussing past accomplishments and future prospects for people of Chinese descent in the movie industry.[70]
Kwan and her husband Norbert Meisel write and direct films about Asian-Americans. Kwan believes that Asians are not depicted in enough films and TV shows. She and her husband have resolved to create their own scripts and films about Asian characters.[4] In 2007, they wrote, directed, and producedStar of Sunshine, aBildungsroman film starringBoys Don't Cry actress Cheyenne Rushing, who plays Rachel. An talented pianist growing up in a troubled home, Rachel journeys to find her peripatetic father, a musician who deserted her when she was a child.[4][71] InSunshine, Rachel is supported by Kwan, the manager of a jazz club, who knows a secret about her.[71] In the film's final scene, Kwan dances, an activity she has enjoyed since her youth.[4]
Kwan wrote an introduction to the 2008 bookFor Goodness Sake: A Novel of the Afterlife of Suzie Wong written by American author James Clapp under the pen name Sebastian Gerard. Clapp became acquainted with Kwan through directorBrian Jamieson, who was filming a documentary about Kwan's life.[72][note 13]
Kwan serves as a spokeswoman for the Asian American Voters Coalition,[1] apan-Asian political organization established in 1986[1] to support Asian actors.[3]
In her performing arts career, Kwan has appeared in two television series and over 50 films.The Straits Times reported in March 2011 that Kwan continues to serve as a film screenwriter and executive.[8]
Kwan currently resides in Los Angeles and has family members in Hong Kong.[63] Once every few years, she travels to the former colony.[73]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | The World of Suzie Wong | Suzie Wong | |
| 1961 | Flower Drum Song | Linda Low | |
| 1962 | The Main Attraction | Tessa | |
| 1963 | Tamahine | Tamahine | |
| 1964 | Honeymoon Hotel | Lynn Jenley | |
| 1964 | Fate Is the Hunter | Sally Fraser | |
| 1965 | The Wild Affair | Marjorie Lee | Filmed in 1963 |
| 1966 | Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. | Wednesday | |
| 1966 | Drop Dead Darling | Baby | a.k.a.Arrivederci, Baby! |
| 1966 | Mong fu sek | Mei Ching | Short |
| 1967 | The Peking Medallion | Tina | a.k.a.The Corrupt Ones |
| 1968 | Nobody's Perfect | Tomiko Momoyama | |
| 1968 | The Wrecking Crew | Wen Yurang | |
| 1969 | The Girl Who Knew Too Much | Revel Drue | |
| 1970 | The McMasters | Robin | |
| 1971 | Karioka etchos de America | ||
| 1973 | Wonder Women | Dr. Tsu | |
| 1974 | Bu zai you chun tian | ||
| 1974 | The Pacific Connection | Leni | |
| 1975 | Fortress in the Sun | Maria | |
| 1975 | Supercock | Yuki Chan | |
| 1975 | That Lady from Peking | Sue Tenchan | |
| 1976 | Project Kill | Lee Su | |
| 1978 | Out of the Darkness | Leslie | a.k.a.Night Creature |
| 1979 | Streets of Hong Kong | Mei Mei | |
| 1982 | Angkor: Cambodia Express | Sue | |
| 1985 | Walking the Edge | Christine Holloway | |
| 1988 | Keys to Freedom | Dr. Lao | |
| 1989 | Night Children | Diane | |
| 1990 | Cold Dog Soup | Madame Chang | |
| 1993 | Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story | Gussie Yang | |
| 1995 | The Golden Girls | ||
| 1995 | Rebellious | Joni | |
| 1996 | For Life or Death | Ling Li | |
| 1998 | Mr. P's Dancing Sushi Bar | Mitsuko McFee | |
| 2005 | Murder on the Yellow Brick Road | Natalie Chung | |
| 2006 | Ray of Sunshine | Lilly | |
| 2016 | Paint It Black | Margaret | |
| 2016 | Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming | Gloria (voice) |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968–69 | Hawaii Five-O | Rosemary Quong | "Pilot", "Cocoon: Parts 1 & 2" |
| 1974 | Kung Fu | Mayli Ho | "The Cenotaph: Parts 1 & 2" |
| 1976 | Hadleigh | Kai Yin | "Hong Kong Rock" |
| 1978 | Fantasy Island | Adela | "The Appointment/Mr. Tattoo" |
| 1982 | Chicago Story | Hoanh Anh | "Not Quite Paradise: Parts 1 & 2" |
| 1983 | The Last Ninja | Noriko Sakura | TV film |
| 1984 | Trapper John, M.D. | Dr. Lois Miyoshiro | "This Gland Is Your Gland" |
| 1984 | Partners in Crime | Anna Chen | "Duke" |
| 1984 | Knots Landing | Beverly Mikuriya | "Hanging Fire" |
| 1985 | Blade in Hong Kong | Lily | TV film |
| 1986 | The A-Team | Lin Wu | "The Point of No Return" |
| 1988 | Noble House | Claudia Chen | TV miniseries |
| 1990 | Miracle Landing | C.B. Lansing | TV film |
| 1990 | Babies | Dr. Liu | TV film |
| 2000 | ER | Mrs. Chen | "Rescue Me" |
One way in which young refugees might gain the right of entry to Britain was by offering proof of their acceptance by a British school, although they still required a British sponsor who would guarantee to cover the costs. Britain's twelve Quaker boarding schools are said to have offered 100 scholarships to refugees. Winchester College offered five free places to refugees, which were advertised by the Earl Baldwin Fund. Amongst the prestigious private, fee-paying secondary schools in the Manchester region which offered places to refugees in 1938 and 1939 either at no cost or at a reduced rate, were Manchester High School for Girls, Kingsmoor School in Glossop, Culcheth Hall School in Bowdon and Bury Grammar School.
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