Nancy Kwan
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Nancy Kwan Ka-shen (Template:Zh; born May 19, 1939)<ref name="Asian Week2009-05-04">Template:Cite news</ref> is a Chinese-American actress whose career benefited from Hollywood's casting of more Asian roles in the 1960s, especially in comedies. She was considered an Eastern sex symbol in the 1960s.
BiographyEdit
Early lifeEdit
Kwan was born in Hong Kong on May 19, 1939,<ref name="Lisanti166">Template:Harvnb</ref> and grew up in Kowloon Tong district.<ref name="Scott">Template:Cite news</ref> Kwan's father was Kwan Wing-hong,<ref name="Harada">Template:Cite news</ref> a Cantonese architect<ref name="Lee201">Template:Harvnb</ref> and her mother was Marquita Scott, a European<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> model of English and Scottish ancestry.<ref name="Robinson">Template:Cite news</ref><ref group="note">Nancy Kwan is "half-Chinese, three-eighths English, one-eighth Scot, blended with a touch of Malayan".<ref name="Robinson"/></ref> Kwan Wing-hong was the son of lawyer Kwan King-sun and Juliann Loke Yuen-ying, daughter of business executive Loke Yew. He attended Cambridge University and met Scott in London. The two married and moved to Hong Kong, where Wing-hong became an prominent architect.<ref name="Robinson"/> In that era, interracial marriage was not widely accepted.<ref name="TheStraitsTimes2011-03-04">Template:Cite news</ref> Nancy has an older brother, Ka-keung.<ref name="Cervantes">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1941, Kwan's parents divorced when she was two years old.<ref name="Cervantes"/> Scott escaped to England during the World War II Japanese invasion and never rejoined the family.<ref name="Robinson"/> Her mother later moved to New York and married an American.<ref name="Martin40–41">Template:Harvnb</ref>
At Christmas 1941, in fear of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong during World War II, Wing Hong, in the guise of a coolie, escaped from Hong Kong to North China with his two children, whom he hid in wicker baskets.<ref name="Robinson"/><ref name="Cervantes"/> Kwan and her brother were transported by servants, evading Japanese sentries.<ref name="Robinson"/><ref name="Cervantes"/> 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 designed.<ref name="Robinson"/><ref name="Cervantes"/> Remaining in Hong Kong with the children, her father married a Chinese woman, whom Kwan called "Mother".<ref name="Robinson"/><ref name="Hopper">Template:Cite news</ref> Her father and her stepmother raised her, in addition to her brother and five half-brothers and half-sisters.<ref name="Robinson"/> Five of Kwan's siblings became lawyers.<ref name="Scott"/>
All of my brothers and sisters are lawyers. The whole family. So I’m the black sheep.<ref name="sL/NK">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web
}}</ref> – Nancy Kwan
Except during World War II, Kwan had a comfortable early life. Cared for by an amah (阿嬤), a woman who looks after children, Kwan owned a pony and passed her summers in resorts in Borneo, Macao, and Japan.<ref name="Robinson"/> An affluent man, her father owned a several-acre hilltop property in Kowloon.<ref name="Martin44">Template:Harvnb</ref> In her youth, she was called "Ka-shen".<ref name="Edwards">Template:Cite news</ref> She wrote in 1960 that as an eight-year-old, her fortune-teller "predicted travel, fame, and fortune for me".<ref name="Fortune Teller1960-04-01">Template:Cite news</ref><ref group="note">In 1959, the same fortune teller prophesied that Kwan would assume the lead role in the film The World of Suzie Wong. The first prophecy was fulfilled when Kwan travelled to Toronto to play the female lead Suzie. The second prophecy was fulfilled when the chosen actress was disqualified, after which producer Ray Stark asked her to screen test for the role, which he later gave her.<ref name="Fortune Teller1960-04-01"/> In an interview with The Saturday Evening PostTemplate:'s Pete Martin, published on February 10, 1962, Kwan said that the story was a hoax. She explained, "Never believe those biographies about me. Many writers put things into them to make people read them."<ref name="Martin40–41"/></ref>
Kwan attended the Catholic Maryknoll Convent School until she was 13 years old,<ref name="Robinson"/> after which she travelled to Kingsmoor School in Glossop, England<ref name="Robinson"/> a private boarding school that had offered places to refugees in 1938 and 1939,<ref name="bw/mup/refugees">Template:Cite journal</ref> either at no cost or at a reduced rate, that her brother Ka-keung was then attending.<ref name="Martin40–41"/> Her brother studied to become an architect and she studied to become a dancer.<ref name="Martin40–41"/>
Kwan's introduction to tai chi sparked a desire to learn ballet.<ref name="Cervantes"/> When Kwan was 18, she pursued her dream of becoming a ballet dancer by attending the Royal 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 perform small parts in several of their productions.<ref group="note">Kwan served as a "spear carrier" during an Aida opera performance.<ref name="Lisanti166"/> She performed in the ballet company's Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty performances.<ref name="Cervantes"/></ref> Upon graduating from high school, she sojourned in France, Italy, and Switzerland on a luxury trip. Afterwards, she travelled back to Hong Kong,<ref name="Lisanti166"/> where she started a ballet school.<ref name="Smyth">Template:Cite news</ref>
Early careerEdit
Stage producer Ray Stark posted an advertisement in the Hong Kong Tiger Standard (later renamed The Standard) regarding auditions for the character Suzie Wong for a play. The ad asked applicants to present their pictures, résumés, and proportions.<ref name="Martin40–41" /> Kwan submitted the application<ref name="Martin40–41" /> and was discovered by Stark in a film studio constructed by her architect father.<ref name="Capua117">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="Thomas1960-09-24">Template:Cite news</ref> After auditioning for Stark, she was asked to screen test to play a character in the prospective film The World of Suzie Wong.<ref name="Lisanti166" /> Stark preferred Kwan over the other women because she "would have more universal acceptance". Another auditionee, French actress France 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 as Melina Mercouri in Never on Sunday. Stark wanted an Asian actress because reconfiguring the eyes of a white actress would merely look artificial. He also praised Kwan's features: an "acceptable face" and "being alluringly leggy [and] perfectly formed".<ref name="Martin44" />
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 with Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright–screenwriter John 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 with her affluent father. The reaction prompted Stark to refrain from letting her view the dailies. Kwan did a third screen test after four months had passed, and a deadlock existed between whether to choose Kwan or Nuyen.<ref name="Martin44" />
Owing to Kwan's lack of acting experience, at Stark's request<ref name="Feldman64">Template:Harvnb</ref> she travelled to the United States, where she attended acting school in Hollywood<ref name="Lisanti166" /> and resided in the Hollywood Studio Club,<ref name=Wong>Template:Cite news</ref> a chaperoned dormitory with other junior actresses.<ref name="Lisanti166" /> She later moved to New York.<ref name="Lisanti166" /> Kwan signed a seven-year contract<ref name="Feldman48">Template:Harvnb</ref> with Stark's Seven Arts Productions<ref name="Hopper" /> at a beginning salary of $300 a week,<ref name="Feldman48" /> even though she was not given a distinct role.<ref name="Martin44" /> In 2005, Edward S. Feldman and Tom Barton characterized Kwan's wages and her employment as "indentured servitude".<ref name="Feldman48" /> In a retrospective interview, Kwan told Goldsea that she had no prior acting experience and that the $300 a week salary was "a lot of money to me then".<ref name="Lisanti166" />
When The World of Suzie Wong began to tour, Kwan was assigned the part of a bargirl. In addition to her small supporting character role, Kwan became an understudy for the production's female lead, France Nuyen.<ref name="Lisanti166" /> Though Stark and the male lead William Holden preferred Kwan despite her somewhat apprehensive demeanor during the screen test, she did not get the role. Paramount favored the eminent France Nuyen, who had been widely praised for her performance in the film South Pacific (1958).<ref name="Cervantes" /> Stark acquiesced to Paramount's wishes.<ref name="Martin44" /> Nuyen received the role and Kwan later took the place of Nuyen on Broadway. In a September 1960 interview with Associated Press journalist Bob Thomas, she said, "I was bitterly disappointed, and I almost quit and went home when I didn't get the picture."<ref name="Thomas1960-09-24" /> Kwan did not receive the lead role because Stark believed she was too inexperienced at the time.<ref name="Feldman64" /> Nuyen won the title role in the upcoming 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,<ref name="Smyth" /> one month after Nuyen was selected for the film role<ref name="Martin44" /> and while Kwan was touring in Toronto, Stark told her to screen test again for the film.<ref name="Lisanti166" /> 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 a cablegram 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?"<ref name="Martin44" /> After Kwan accepted the role, the Broadway play producer sued her for leaving with little notice.<ref name="Thomas1960-09-24" />
Nuyen, who was in an unstable relationship with Marlon Brando, had a nervous breakdown and was fired from the role because of her erratic actions.<ref name="Capua117" /><ref group="note">The official reason Paramount Pictures gave for Nuyen's departure was that she had developed "a recurrence of a throat infection that developed into tonsillitis and laryngitis".<ref name="Of Local Origin">Template:Cite news</ref> Richard West of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the speculation was that Nuyen was removed owing to her recent weight gain because she binge ate after splitting up with her lover Brando.<ref name="West">Template:Cite news</ref></ref> The film's director, Jean Negulesco, was fired and replaced by Richard Quine.<ref name="Capua117" /> Kwan, who previously had never been in a film, defeated 30 competitors from Hollywood, France, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.<ref name="West" /> On February 15, 1960, she began filming the movie in London with co-star William Holden.<ref name="The New York Times2011-11-15">Template:Cite news</ref>
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 grievously. 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 returned to the set after lunch, aloofly wearing a bra and half-slip, acting as if what had happened earlier had not transpired.<ref name="Martin44" />
Owing to Kwan's perceptible Eurasian appearance, the film's make-up artists endeavored to make her look more Chinese.<ref name="Lisanti167">Template:Harvnb</ref> They plucked her eyebrows and sketched a line across her forehead.<ref name="Martin44" /> In movies where Kwan plays Asian roles, the makeup artists reshape her brown eyes. Gossip columnist Hedda 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".<ref name="Hopper" /> The production spanned five months, an unusually lengthy period for the era.<ref name="Scott" />
StardomEdit
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The World of Suzie Wong was a "box-office sensation". Critics lavished praise on Kwan for her performance.<ref name="Lisanti167"/> She was given the nickname "Chinese Bardot" for her unforgettable dance performance.<ref name="Cervantes"/> Kwan and two other actresses, Ina Balin and Hayley Mills, were awarded the Golden Globe for the "Most Promising Newcomer–Female" in 1960. The following year, she was voted a "Star of Tomorrow".<ref name="Lisanti167"/> Scholar Jennifer Leah Chan of New York University wrote that Suzie provided an Asian actress—Kwan—with the most significant Hollywood role since actress Anna May Wong's success in the 1920s.<ref name="Chan97">Template:Harvnb</ref>
Following The World of Suzie Wong, Kwan was unprepared for fame. While she was purchasing fabric in a store on Nathan Road, she found people staring at her from the window. Wondering what they were staring at, it suddenly struck her that she was the point of attraction.<ref name="Scott"/> Kwan remarked that in Beverly Hills, she can walk without attracting notice. She rationalized, "[It] is better in America because America is much bigger, I guess".<ref name="Martin44"/> When people addressed her father after watching the film, they frequently called him "Mr. Wong", a name that severely displeased him.<ref name="Scott"/> Kwan said in a 1994 interview with the South China Morning Post that even decades after her film debut and despite her having done over 50 films thence, viewers continued to send numerous letters to her about the film.<ref name="Haydon">Template:Cite news</ref>
The scene of Kwan, reposed on a davenport and adorned in a dazzling cheongsam, while showing a "deliciously decadent flash of thigh", became an iconic image.<ref name="Scott"/> Clad in a cheongsam—"a Chinese dress with a high collar and slits, one on each side of the skirt"<ref name="Martin40–41"/>—Kwan was on the October 1960 cover of Life, cementing her status as an eminent sex symbol in the 1960s.<ref name="Asian Week2009-05-04"/> Nicknamed the "Suzie Wong dress",<ref name="Roberts">Template:Cite news</ref> the cheongsam in the portrait spawned thousands of copycat promotional projects.<ref name="Scott"/> In a 1962 interview, Kwan said she "loved" the cheongsam, calling it a "national costume". She explained that it "has slits because Chinese girls have pretty legs" and "the slits show their legs".<ref name="Martin40–41"/><ref group="note">In her 1962 interview with Pete Martin of The Saturday Evening Post, Kwan commented about the clothes worn by different cultures: "Japanese women have pretty necks so they wear a kimono with a collar away from the neck. American girls wear low-cut dresses because they have big busts."<ref name="Martin40–41"/></ref>
Chinese and Chinese-Americans became aggrieved after seeing how Chinese women were depicted as promiscuous. Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul speculated that the wave of unfavorable media attention drove filmmakers to escalate the production of Kwan's next film. In 1961, she starred in Flower Drum Song in a related role. The film was distinguished for being the "first big-budget American film" with an all-Asian cast.<ref name="Lisanti167"/><ref group="note">Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul wrote that the film was noted for being the "first big-budget American film with an all–Chinese cast".<ref name="Lisanti167"/> Despite the film's being set in Chinatown, four of the main characters were played by Japanese Americans. Two were Golden Globe Award winner James Shigeta and the first Asian Academy Award-winner Miyoshi Umeki. Non-Chinese actors in the ensemble included Filipino-American Patrick Adiarte and Japanese-American Jack Soo.<ref name="Walbrook">Template:Cite news</ref></ref> Kwan did not sing the songs in the musical film; the vocals for Linda Low were performed by B. J. Baker.<ref name="Evans2004-01-11">Template:Cite news</ref> Comparing Suzie Wong and Flower 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 in Flower Drum Song, where she had much space to dance.<ref name="Martin42–43">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref group="note">The film's three-building primary set cost $310,000, spanning 51,000 square feet. Modeled after Grant Avenue in Chinatown, San Francisco, it was up to that point the biggest, most expensive Hollywood sound stage ever designed.<ref name="Martin42–43"/></ref>
After starring in The World of Suzie Wong and Flower Drum Song, Kwan experienced a meteoric rise to celebrity. Scholar Jennifer Leah Chan of New 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 of Life magazine, Kwan was the subject of a 1962 article in a popular women's magazine, McCall's, entitled "The China Doll that Men Like".<ref name="Chan86">Template:Harvnb</ref>
As a Hollywood icon, Kwan lived in a house atop Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles. She commuted in a white British sports car and danced to Latin verses. She enjoyed listening to Johnny Mathis records and reading Chinese history texts.<ref name="Martin40–41"/> In 1962 (when she was 22), Kwan was dating Swiss actor Maximilian 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."<ref name="Martin42–43"/>
In 1961, Kwan offered to work as a teacher for King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. The infantry was training for military involvement in Malaya (now part of Malaysia), and the regiment's commanders believed that the infantrymen should be taught the Chinese language and how to handle chopsticks. Captain Anthony Hare announced to the public that the infantry needed a teacher – an attractive one. He later acknowledged that he appended 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 tardy request was not evaluated, as the infantry had already accepted the application of another Chinese woman.<ref name="Smyth"/>
The Nancy Kwan CutEdit
In 1963, Nancy Kwan's long hair, famous from The World of Suzie Wong, was chopped into a sharp modernist bob by Vidal Sassoon for the film The Wild Affair, at the request of director John Krish.<ref name="Art & Hue">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Designed by London hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, Kwan's bob cut in the film drew widespread media attention for the "severe geometry of her new hairstyle".<ref name="McHugh">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Donnally">Template:Cite news</ref> Sassoon's signature cut of Kwan's hair was nicknamed "the Kwan cut", "the Kwan bob", or was plainly known as "the Kwan"; photographs of Kwan's new hairstyle appeared in both the American and British editions of Vogue.<ref name="TheIrishTimes2012-05-12">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Art & Hue" />
Later filmsEdit
Kwan's success in her early career was not mirrored in later years,<ref name="Hodges231">Template:Harvnb</ref> due to the cultural nature of 1960s America.Template:Fact Ann Lloyd and Graham Fuller wrote in their book The Illustrated Who's Who of the Cinema: "Her Eurasian beauty and impish sense of humor could not sustain her stardom".<ref name="Lloyd248">Template:Harvnb</ref> Her later films were marked by multifarious parts,<ref name="Lloyd248"/> comprising movie and television roles for American and European productions.<ref name="Asian Week2009-05-04"/> Kwan discovered that she had to journey to Europe and Hong Kong to escape the ethnic typecasting in Hollywood that confined her largely to Asian roles in spite of her Eurasian appearance.<ref name="Cervantes"/><ref name="Hodges231"/>
Her third movie was the British drama film The Main Attraction (1962) with Pat Boone. She played an Italian circus performer who was the love interest of Boone's character. While she was filming the movie in the Austrian Alps, she met Peter Pock, a hotelier and ski teacher, 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 resided in Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria. Kwan later gave birth to Bernhard "Bernie" Pock.<ref name="Thomas1963-12-11">Template:Cite news</ref> In December 1963, Pock was constructing a luxury hotel in the Tyrolean Alps. During Christmas of that year, Nancy Kwan visited the location and was able to participate in several pre-1964 Winter Olympics events despite having been very occupied with movies. 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 had his father's appearance.<ref name="Hopper"/>
In 1963, Kwan starred as the title character of Tamahine. Because of her role, she went to the optician to get contact lenses so she would look blue-eyed.<ref name="Martin40–41"/> Playing an English-Tahitian ward of the head master at an old English public school, she was praised by the Boston Globe for her "charming depict[ion]" of the character.<ref name="Boston Globe1964-03-26">Template:Cite news</ref><ref group="note">The energetic nature of Kwan's character Tamahine either causes amazement or captivation in her family members. With an irreverent air about clothes, Tamahine, an instructor at Hallow school, is welcomed as a guest in the headmaster's dwelling. While at the school, she takes her clothes off with no sense of self awareness; she has the same attitude as when she stripped off her clothes in her homeland while entering the ocean. Adorned in only a bra and panties, she tosses flowers to her students from her boudoir. Her "high-jinks" cause all the male students and the headmaster to become infatuated with her. The more conservative teachers are angered by Tamahine's antics.<ref name="Boston Globe1964-03-26"/></ref>
In Fate Is the Hunter (1964), her seventh film, Kwan played an ichthyologist. It was her first role as a Eurasian character.<ref name="Hopper"/><ref group="note">In Kwan's previous six films, she played non-Eurasian characters. In The World of Suzie Wong (1960), Kwan played a Hong Kong prostitute; in Flower Drum Song (1961), a Chinese-American residing in San Francisco, in The Main Attraction (1962), an Italian circus entertainer; in Tamahine (1963), an English-Tahitian; in The Wild Affair (1963), two English sisters, one of whom was "good", and the other of whom was "bad"; and in Honeymoon Hotel (1964), a New Yorker.<ref name="Hopper"/></ref> 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.<ref name="Hopper"/>
Kwan met Bruce Lee when he choreographed the martial arts moves in the film The Wrecking Crew (1969).<ref name="Haydon"/><ref name="Hamamoto50">Template:Harvnb</ref> In Kwan's role in the film, she fought the character played by Sharon Tate by throwing a flying kick. Her martial arts move was based not on karate training, but on her dance foundation. Author Darrell Y. Hamamoto noted that this "ironically" twisted Kwan's "dragon-lady role" through its underscoring the replacement of Kung Fu with Western dance moves.<ref name="Hamamoto50"/> 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 carried on their companionship.<ref name="Haydon"/>
Kwan divorced Peter Pock in June 1968.<ref name="Milestones: June 28, 1968">Template:Cite news</ref> She married Hollywood screenwriter David Giler in July 1970 in a civil ceremony in Carson City, Nevada. The marriage was Kwan's second and Giler's first.<ref name="Milestones: July 13, 1970">Template:Cite news</ref> They divorced in 1971.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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.<ref name="Horning">Template:Cite news</ref> She did not stop her work, starring as Dr. Sue in the film Wonder Women (1973). While in Hong Kong, Kwan founded a production company,<ref name="Horning"/> Nancy Kwan Films,<ref name="Lee201"/> which made ads mostly for people in Southeast Asia. In the 1980s, she returned to the United States,<ref name="Yen">Template:Cite news</ref> where she played characters in the television series Fantasy Island, Knots Landing and Trapper John, M.D..<ref name="Lee201"/>
In 1976 Kwan married Norbert Meisel, an actor, director, screenwriter, and producer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In a 1993 interview with the St. 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 a stunt performer.<ref name="Horning"/> For the 1991 action comedy film Fast Getaway, fellow stunt performer Kenny Bates and he gripped hands and leaped off the Royal Gorge Bridge. They fell 900 ft before being restrained by wire rope 200 ft over the Arkansas River.<ref name="Foster">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Reis">Template:Cite news</ref> Bates said their stunt was the "highest 'double drop' ever attempted".<ref name="Reis"/> Kwan and Bernie recorded a tape about tai chi.<ref name="Horning"/>
Later yearsEdit
In 1987, Nancy Kwan co-founded the restaurant Joss Cuisine. Kwan, producer Ray Stark, and restaurateur and Hong Kong film director Cecile Tang financed the restaurant, located on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood.<ref name="Lipson">Template:Cite news</ref>
Kwan sporadically records audiobooks.<ref name="TheStraitsTimes2011-03-04"/> In 1995, Kwan recorded an audiobook for Anchee Min's memoir Red Azalea in what Publishers Weekly called a "coolly understated performance that allows the story's subtleties and unexpected turns to work by themselves".<ref name="PublishersWeekly1995-06-05">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2011, she recorded an audiobook for the 1989 memoir When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip with Jay Wurts. San Francisco ChronicleTemplate:'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".<ref name="Holt">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1993, Kwan played Gussie Yang, a "tough-talking, soft-hearted Hong Kong restaurateur", in the fictional Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.<ref name="Horning"/> She played a pivotal role in the film,<ref name="Polunsky">Template:Cite news</ref> a character based on Seattle restaurateur and political leader Ruby Chow<ref name="Asian Week2009-05-04"/> who hires Bruce Lee as a dishwasher and gives him the funds to open a martial arts school.<ref name="Polunsky"/>
In May 1993, she completed the production of a film about Eurasians, Loose Woman With No Face, which she wrote, directed, and starred.<ref name="Polunsky"/> She called the film "a slice of life about Euro-Asians in Los Angeles, and it's something I know about".<ref name="Horning"/><ref name="Polunsky"/>
In 1993, 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."<ref name="Smyth"/> In the 1990s, she faced a severe shortage of strong roles. She attributed this to both her age and the movie enterprise's aversion to selecting Asians for non-Asian roles. In earlier years, she was 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 film The Joy Luck Club. Because the filmmakers refused to excise a line calling The World of Suzie Wong a "...horrible racist film," she passed on the role.<ref name="Stein">Template:Cite news</ref><ref group="note">Kwan said Suzie Wong was not a racist movie. If it had been racist, she would not have been in it. She noted that the film was about the biracial relationship between the characters played by Kwan and William Holden. Kwan said, "I'm the product of an interracial marriage. Why is that racist?" Three actresses who played Suzie Wong in stage roles, including France Nguyen, were cast in The Joy Luck Club.<ref name="Stein"/></ref>
In November 1993, Kwan co-starred in the two-character play Arthur and Leila about two siblings who struggle with their Chinese identities. It debuted in the Bay Front Theater in Fort Mason, San Francisco, and moved to Los Angeles two weeks later.<ref name="Stein"/><ref group="note">Adorned in a bob cut, black tights, and a silk blouse<ref name="Stein"/> from costume designer Ken Takemoto,<ref name="Drake">Template:Cite news</ref> Kwan played the character Leila Chin-Abernathy.<ref name="Lopez, Robert J.">Template:Cite news</ref> The stylish and well-dressed Leila is a direct contrast with her disheveled alcoholic brother Arthur, acted by Dana Lee.<ref name="Drake"/> Leila, an affluent local celebrity, supports her brother, an indigent gambler, by buying family heirlooms from him. Brother and sister reminisce about their family life; with each family item exchanged, they become closer to each other. Written by Cherylene Lee, who had been in the cast of the 1961 film Flower Drum Song with Kwan,<ref name="Adolphson">Template:Cite news</ref> the play received the 1994 Fund for New American Plays award,<ref name="Lopez, Robert J."/> a $30,000 grant.<ref name="San Jose Mercury News1993-10-19">Template:Cite news</ref></ref> Variety reviewer Julio Martinez praised Kwan for her ability to "flo[w] easily between haughty sophistication and girlish insecurity".<ref name="Martinez">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1994, an article in the South China Morning Post said that she preserved her "dancer's figure" through the Chinese martial art tai chi and frequent dance sessions.<ref name="Haydon"/> That year, she assumed the role of 52-year-old Martha in Singapore Repertory Theatre's showing of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, an "intense psychological play" by Edward Albee.<ref name="Yen"/>
In 1995, she produced and acted in the feature film Rebellious. Bernie was the director, writer, and star of the film, which was co-produced by Norbert Meisel.<ref name="IMDb">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1996, when he was 33,<ref name="Brieger">Template:Cite news</ref> Kwan's son, Bernie, died after contracting AIDS from his girlfriend whom Kwan had cautioned him to avoid.<ref name="TheStraitsTimes2011-03-04"/> Four years after his death, poet and actress Amber Tamblyn compiled her debut poetry book Of the Dawn and dedicated it to Pock. Tamblyn had acted in Rebellious when she was nine, alongside her father Russ Tamblyn.<ref name="IMDb"/> Calling Pock a "big brother", she said he was the "first guy" to convince her to share her poems.<ref name="Houston Chronicle2000-12-17">Template:Cite news</ref>
Nancy Kwan has appeared on television commercials even into the 1990s and appeared in "late night infomercials" as the spokesperson for the cosmetic "Oriental Pearl Cream".<ref name="Lisanti168">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="Hall">Template:Cite news</ref><ref group="note">In the infomercials, Kwan would say an advertising catchphrase coined by copywriter Gary Halbert: "If your friends don't actually accuse you of having had a face-lift, return the empty jar ..."<ref name="Kennedy110">Template:Harvnb</ref></ref>
Kwan has been involved in philanthropy for AIDS awareness. In 1997, she published A Celebration of Life – Memories of My Son, a book about her son who died after being infected by HIV. She gave profits from both the book and a movie she created about him to supporting the study of AIDS and the promotion of AIDS awareness.<ref name="Asian Week2009-05-04"/>
On March 17, 2006, cheongsam-wearing Kwan and her husband, Norbert Meisel, attended the debut performance of Hong Kong Ballet's depiction of Suzie Wong at Sha Tin Town Hall.<ref name="Crothers">Template:Cite news</ref> Kwan told The Kansas City Star in 2007 that she did not consider retiring, 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?"<ref name="Harada"/> In 2006, Kwan reunited with Flower Drum Song co-star James Shigeta to perform A. R. Gurney's two-person play Love Letters. They performed the play at Los Angeles' East West Players and San Francisco's Herbst Theatre.<ref name="Lovell">Template:Cite news</ref>
Kwan appeared in Arthur Dong's 2007 documentary Hollywood Chinese, where other Chinese dignitaries and she discussed the past accomplishments and the impending plight of Chinese people in the film industry.<ref name="Young">Template:Cite news</ref>
Kwan and her husband Norbert Meisel write and direct films about Asian-Americans. Kwan believes that Asians are not cast in enough films and TV shows. Meisel and she resolved to create their own scripts and films about Asian characters.<ref name="Harada"/> In 2007, they wrote, directed, and produced Star of Sunshine, a Bildungsroman film starring Boys Don't Cry actress Cheyenne Rushing, who plays Rachel. An ardent pianist in a conflicted household, Rachel journeys to find her restless father, a musician who deserted her when she was a mere child.<ref name="Harada"/><ref name="Butler">Template:Cite news</ref> In Sunshine, Rachel is supported by Kwan, the manager of a jazz club, who knows a mystery about her.<ref name="Butler"/> In the film's final scene, Kwan dances, an activity she has enjoyed since her youth.<ref name="Harada"/>
Kwan wrote an introduction for the 2008 book For Goodness Sake: A Novel of the Afterlife of Suzie Wong written by American author James Clapp using the pen name Sebastian Gerard. Clapp became acquainted with Kwan through director Brian Jamieson, who was filming a documentary about Kwan's life.<ref name="Evans2008-04-06">Template:Cite news</ref><ref group="note">Clapp, a professor of urbanism who has travelled frequently to teach in Hong Kong, is from California. The novel's title is a tribute to Wong's Chinese Pidgin English. Main character Marco Podesta is, like Clapp, an urbanism professor. His visit to Hong Kong coincides with the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997. He meets and becomes infatuated with a Chinese girl, Lily. Podesta, while strolling through Sheung Wan, discovers a painting featured in a gallery window. The painting's subject, a Chinese girl, wears a ponytail and cheongsam. To Podesta, she is Suzie Wong. He becomes infatuated with her and meets the painting's artist, Robert Lomax, who is either Suzie WongTemplate:'s male lead or an insane man. Author Clapp was inspired to write the novel when he was traveling on the Star Ferry in 2000 and saw from behind the flowing ponytail of a young lady. He said, "Now, I know there are thousands of women in Hong Kong with ponytails, but somehow the film started rolling in my head and I started to write notes."<ref name="Evans2008-04-06"/></ref>
Kwan serves as a spokeswoman for the Asian American Voters Coalition,<ref name="Asian Week2009-05-04"/> a pan-Asian political organization established in 1986<ref name="Asian Week2009-05-04"/> to aid Asian actors.<ref name="Scott"/>
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.<ref name="TheStraitsTimes2011-03-04"/>
Kwan currently resides in Los Angeles and has family members in Hong Kong.<ref name="Brieger"/> Once every few years, she travels to the former colony.<ref name="Philippine Daily Inquirer2010-03-19">Template:Cite news</ref>
FilmographyEdit
FilmEdit
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Template:Sortname | Suzie Wong | |
| 1961 | Flower Drum Song | Linda Low | |
| 1962 | Template:Sortname | Tessa | |
| 1963 | Tamahine | Tamahine | |
| 1964 | Honeymoon Hotel | Lynn Jenley | |
| 1964 | Fate Is the Hunter | Sally Fraser | |
| 1965 | Template:Sortname | Marjorie Lee | Filmed in 1963 |
| 1966 | Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. | Wednesday | |
| 1966 | Drop Dead Darling | Baby | AKA, Arrivederci, Baby! |
| 1966 | Mong fu sek | Mei Ching | Short |
| 1967 | Template:Sortname | Tina | AKA, The Corrupt Ones |
| 1968 | Nobody's Perfect | Tomiko Momoyama | |
| 1968 | Template:Sortname | Wen Yurang | |
| 1969 | Template:Sortname | Revel Drue | |
| 1970 | Template:Sortname | Robin | |
| 1971 | Karioka etchos de America | ||
| 1973 | Wonder Women | Dr. Tsu | |
| 1974 | Bu zai you chun tian | ||
| 1974 | Template:Sortname | 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 | AKA, 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 | Template:Sortname | ||
| 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) |
TelevisionEdit
| 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 | Template:Sortname | 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 | Template:Sortname | 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" |
AwardsEdit
- 1961 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Drama (Nominated) for The World of Suzie Wong
- 1961 Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female, shared with Ina Balin and Hayley Mills
- Golden Ring Award
- Historymaker for Excellence in the Performing Arts – Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles, California
- Visionary Award – East West Players, April 28, 2003<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Lifetime Achievement Award – Chinatown, Los Angeles, June 2009
- Maverick Award – Hawaii International Film Festival, October 2010
- Lifetime Achievement Award – San Diego Asian Film Festival, October 2011
- Lifetime Achievement Award – Museum of Chinese in America, November 2015
- AHF Inductee & Lifetime Achievement Award - Asian Hall of Fame, 2021
BibliographyEdit
See alsoEdit
- Anna May Wong, a Chinese-American Hollywood actress, active in the early 20th century
- Kevin Kwan, Singapore-American author, distant cousin to Nancy Kwan<ref name=Vulture-2018-07>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ReferencesEdit
NotesEdit
FootnotesEdit
BibliographyEdit
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External linksEdit
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- Nancy Kwan interview cnn.com April 14, 2010
Template:Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year Actress