Anna May Wong
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Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was the first truly notable Chinese American Hollywood actress.
Born Wong Liu Tsong (}; }) in Los Angeles, California, a daughter of a laundryman, she began playing bit parts as a teenager in the early days of Hollywood.
Career Rise
Wong's first role was in the silent film The Red Lantern (1919) with Alla Nazimova as an uncredited extra. However, even with associations with a Hollywood power like Nazimova, her ethnicity prevented her from getting choice parts. Though her family had been in California since 1855, as a Chinese-American, Wong was considered "foreign" both through social prejudices of the time, and by law. Anti-miscegenation laws existed in California until 1948. [link] Hollywood films of the silent era and early 1930s pre-code era sometimes flaunted the more conservative social mores of the time, but these restrictions were codified when the studios adopted the Hays Code in 1930, and began enforcing it in 1934. Wong's career was especially affected by the anti-miscegenation rules in the Code, since they prevented her from playing romantic roles with non-Asian actors. When MGM was casting for The Good Earth (1937), she was passed up for the lead female role of O-lan because Paul Muni, an actor of European descent, was to play Wang Lung, O-lan's husband. Even though Muni was to wear heavy make up to look Asian, industry regulations prevented her from playing romantic roles opposite actors of different ethnicity. Instead, the role Wong hoped for went to Luise Rainer.Despite this discrimination, she had a number of significant film roles. Her first starring role was in Hollywood's first color movie The Toll of the Sea (1921). Anna May travelled throughout Europe, and was one of the leads in the British film Piccadilly (1929). In Java Head (1934) she starred opposite actor John Loder as a Chinese princess married to a 19th-century English gentleman.
She also made films in German and French. In addition, she co-starred with Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932) and with Lana Turner in Portrait in Black (1960), though she typically earned far less than her billing would indicate. For her work in Shanghai Express, she received $6,000 in comparison to Dietrich's more than $78,000. Many critics, however, believed that she stole the film from Dietrich with her intense performance, despite only playing a supporting role, and the two actresses never worked together again. She toured extensively on the stage throughout Europe and the U.S., including opposite Vincent Price in Princess Turandot , a stage version of Giacomo Puccini's opera.
Wong never married, though reportedly was a mistress of film director Marshall Neilan, among others.
She died at 56 from a heart attack while battling liver cirrhosis in Santa Monica, California.
In 2003-2004, two biographies and a book on her career appeared.
Anna May Wong: A Complete Guide to Her Film, Stage, Radio and Television Work was written by Philip Leibfried and Chei Mi Lane. Another biography made reference to her statement that she "died a thousand deaths." This quote is sometimes attributed to her believing in reincarnation, but others have indicated it was a wry observation on her characters dying at the end of films. Her religion in adulthood was Christian Science.[link]
For her contribution to the film industry, Anna May Wong was given a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 1708 Vine Street.
She was a cousin of cinematographer James Wong Howe.
Partial filmography
- The Red Lantern (1919) uncredited
- Bits of Life (1921)
- The Toll of the Sea (1921) as Lotus Flower
- The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
- Peter Pan (1924) as Tiger Lily
- Piccadilly (1929) as Shosho
- Daughter of the Dragon (1931) as Princess Ling Moy
- Shanghai Express (1932) as Hui Fei
- A Study in Scarlet (1933)
- Dangerous to Know (1937)
- Daughter of Shanghai (1937)
- When Were You Born (1938)
- King of Chinatown (1939)
- Island of Lost Men (1939)
- Bombs Over Burma (1942)
- Lady From Chungking (1942)
- Impact (1949)
- Portrait In Black (1960)
External links
- Anna May Wong at [Silent Era People]
- Anna May Wong Photo Galleries at [Silent Ladies & Gents]
- Anna May Wong Tobacco Cards at [Virtual History]
- Corliss, Richard. (2005). ["Anna May Wong Did It Right"] at Time Online.
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