Nancy Kwan
Encyclopedia
Nancy "Ka Shen" Kwan is a Eurasian
Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....

-American actress, who played a pivotal role in the acceptance of actors of Asian descent in major Hollywood film roles. Widely praised for her beauty, Kwan was considered a sex symbol
Sex symbol
A sex symbol is a celebrity of either gender, typically an actor, musician, supermodel, teen idol, or sports star, noted for their sex appeal. The term was first used in the mid 1950s in relation to the popularity of certain Hollywood stars, especially Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte...

 in the 1960s.

Early life

Born in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 on May 19, 1939, and growing up in Kowloon Tong
Kowloon Tong
Kowloon Tong , formerly Kau Lung Tong, is an area in Hong Kong. Within New Kowloon, it is administratively divided by Kowloon City District and Sham Shui Po District...

, Nancy Kwan is the daughter of Kwan Wing Hong, a Cantonese
Cantonese people
The Cantonese people are Han people whose ancestral homes are in Guangdong, China. The term "Cantonese people" would then be synonymous with the Bun Dei sub-ethnic group, and is sometimes known as Gwong Fu Jan for this narrower definition...

 architect, and Marquita Scott, a model of English and Scottish decent. The son of a Chinese lawyer, Kwan Wing Hong attended Cambridge University and became an eminent architect in Hong Kong. After he met Marquita Scott in London, the two married and moved to Hong Kong. During the era, society held a dim view of miscegenation
Miscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....

. Kwan has an older brother, Ka Keung.

Under fear of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Wing Hong, under the guise of a coolie
Coolie
Historically, a coolie was a manual labourer or slave from Asia, particularly China, India, and the Phillipines during the 19th century and early 20th century...

, escaped from Hong Kong to North China
North China
thumb|250px|Northern [[People's Republic of China]] region.Northern China or North China is a geographical region of China. The heartland of North China is the North China Plain....

 in Christmas 1941 with his two children, whom he hid in wicker
Wicker
Wicker is hard woven fiber formed into a rigid material, usually used for baskets or furniture. Wicker is often made of material of plant origin, but plastic fibers are also used....

 baskets. Kwan and her brother were transported by servants, evading Japanese sentries. 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 architected. Marquita Scott escaped to England and never rejoined the family. Kwan's parents divorced when she was two years old, and her father remarried a Chinese woman, whom she called "Mother". Her father and her step-mother gave her brother and her five half-brothers and half-sisters. Five of Kwan's siblings became lawyers.

Save for during World War II, Kwan had a comfortable early life. Serviced by an amah (阿嬤), a woman who looks after children, Kwan owned a pony and passed the summer months in resorts in Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

, Macao
Mação
Mação is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 400.0 km² and a total population of 7,763 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of eight parishes, and is located in the Santarém District....

, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. In her youth, she was called "Ka Shen". She wrote in 1960 that as an eight year old, her fortune-teller
Fortune-telling
Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...

 "predicted travel, fame and fortune for me". The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 called the fortune-teller "either a gifted or lucky" one.

She attended the Catholic Maryknoll Convent School
Maryknoll Convent School
Maryknoll Convent School is a Roman Catholic girls' school with primary and secondary sections at Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. It was founded by the American Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong in 1925 at Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. MCS is well-known for its distinguished academic results and school traditions...

 until she was 13 years old, after which she traveled to Kingsmoore, an English boarding school. Her four years of studying at the school earned her the General Certificate of Secondary Education
General Certificate of Secondary Education
The General Certificate of Secondary Education is an academic qualification awarded in a specified subject, generally taken in a number of subjects by students aged 14–16 in secondary education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and is equivalent to a Level 2 and Level 1 in Key Skills...

.

Her introduction to tai-chi sparked a desire to learn ballet. When Kwan was 18 years old, she pursued her dream of becoming of a ballet dancer by attending Royal Ballet School
Royal Ballet School
The Royal Ballet School is one of the most famous classical ballet schools in the world and is the associate school of the Royal Ballet, a leading international ballet company based at the Royal Opera House in London...

 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 theater groups, Kwan was able to perform small parts in several of their productions. Upon graduating from her scholastic studies, she sojourned to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 on a luxury trip. Afterwards, she traveled back to Hong Kong, where she intended to start a ballet school.

Early career

Stage producer Ray Stark
Ray Stark
Ray Stark was an American film producer and powerbroker known for his Machiavellian ways.While putting together the Broadway musical Funny Girl - the highly fictionalized account of the life of his mother-in-law, Fanny Brice - its producer David Merrick took Stark and his wife to see an unknown...

 discovered Kwan in Hong Kong in a film studio constructed by her architect father. After auditioning for Stark, she was asked to screen test
Screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film and/or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable...

 to play a character in the prospective film The World of Suzie Wong
The World of Suzie Wong (film)
The World of Suzie Wong is a 1960 British-American romantic drama film directed by Richard Quine. The screenplay by John Patrick was adapted from the stage play by Paul Osborn, which was based on the novel of the same title by Richard Mason...

. Although Stark and the male lead William Holden
William Holden
William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...

 preferred Kwan despite her being somewhat apprehensive during the screen test, she was not given the role. The other producers favored the eminent France Nguyen, who had been widely praised for her performance in the 1958 film South Pacific
South Pacific (film)
South Pacific is a 1958 musical romance film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, and based on James A. Michener's Tales of the South Pacific...

. Nguyen received the role and Kwan later took the place of Nguyen on Broadway. In a September 1960 interview with Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 journalist Bomb Thomas
Bob Thomas (reporter)
Bob Thomas is an American Hollywood film industry biographer and reporter who has worked for the Associated Press since 1944.-Personal life:...

, she said, "I was bitterly disappointed, and I almost quit and went home when I didn't get the picture." Kwan signed a seven-year contract with Stark's Seven Arts Productions
Seven Arts Productions
Seven Arts Productions was founded in 1957 by Ray Stark and Eliot Hyman. The company was a frequent producer of movies for other studios, including The Misfits for United Artists, Gigot for Twentieth Century-Fox, Lolita for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Is Paris Burning? for Paramount Pictures.Over...

 at a beginning salary of $300 a week. In 2005, Edward S. Feldman
Edward S. Feldman
Edward S. Feldman is an American film and television producer.Born and raised in The Bronx, where he attended DeWitt Clinton High School, Feldman graduated from Michigan State University, after which he was hired by 20th Century Fox to work as a writer in the studio's press book department in its...

 and Tom Barton characterized Kwan's wages and her employment as "indentured servitude". In a retrospective interview, Kwan told Goldsea
Goldsea
Goldsea.com is a large, fully featured magazine site. It is aimed at Asian Americans and publishes interviews and profiles of successful Asian Americans. The "Goldsea 100" celebrates high-achieving Asian American businesspeople and includes several billionaires, including one aged only 32...

 that she had no prior acting experience and that the $300 a week salary was "a lot of money to me then". Owing to Kwan's lack of acting experience, at Stark's request, she traveled to the United States, where she attended acting school in Hollywood and later moved to New York. Kwan resided in a dormitory with other junior actresses.

When The World of Suzie Wong began to tour, Kwan was assigned to be a bargirl
Bargirl
A bargirl is a woman who works as a hostess or dancer in bars to provide company or sexual services to patrons; the exact nature of services and varieties of bar varying by country/region. In most cases, these cater mostly to male clients, although in some cases women are also clients...

. In addition to her small supporting character
Supporting character
A supporting character is a character of a book, play, video game, movie, television or radio show or other form of storytelling usually used to give added dimension to a main character, by adding a relationship with this character...

 role, Kwan became an understudy for the production's female lead, France Nguyen, a French actress. Kwan did not receive the lead role because Stark believed she was too inexperienced at the time. Nguyen won the title role
Title role
The title role in the performing arts is the performance part that gives the title to the piece, as in Aida, Giselle, Michael Collins or Othello. The actor, singer or dancer who performs that part is also said to have 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, while Kwan was touring in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Stark told her to screen test again for the film. Nguyen, who was in an unstable relationship with Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

, had a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...

 and was fired from the role because of her erratic actions. The film's director, Jean Negulesco
Jean Negulesco
Jean Negulesco was a Romanian-born American film director and screenwriter....

, was fired and replaced by Richard Quine
Richard Quine
Richard Quine was an American stage, film, and radio actor and film director.Quine was born in Detroit. He made his Broadway debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May in 1939 and appeared in My Sister Eileen the following year...

. Kwan, who had theretofore never been in a film, defeated 30 competitors from Hollywood, France, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. On February 15, 1960, she began filming the movie in London with co-star William Holden
William Holden
William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...

. After Kwan accepted the role, the Broadway play producer sued her for leaving with little notice. Owing to Kwan's perceptible Eurasian appearance, the film's make-up artists endeavored to make her look more Chinese. In such movies where Kwan plays Asian roles, the makeup artists slant her brown eyes. The Hartford Courants 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". The production spanned five months, an unusually lengthy period for the era.

Stardom

The World of Suzie Wong was a "box-office sensation". Critics lavished praise on Kwan for her performance. She was given the nickname "Chinese Bardot" for her unforgettable dance performance. Kwan and two other actresses, Ina Balin
Ina Balin
Ina Balin was an American actress on Broadway and in film.Born as Ina Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, she first appeared on television on The Perry Como Show...

 and Hayley Mills
Hayley Mills
Hayley Mills is an English actress. The daughter of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and sister of actress Juliet Mills, Mills began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Tiger Bay , the Academy Juvenile Award...

, were awarded the Golden Globe for the "Most Promising Newcomer–Female" in 1960. The following year, she was voted a "Star of Tomorrow". Scholar Jennifer Leah Chan of New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 wrote that Suzie provided an Asian actress, Kwan, with the most significant Hollywood role since actress Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star...

's success in the 1920s. Kwan was unprepared for fame as an 18 year old. While she was purchasing fabric in a store on Nathan Road, Kwan 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. When people addressed her father after watching the film, they frequently called him "Mr Wong", a name which severely displeased him.

The scene of Kwan, reposed on a davenport
Davenport (sofa)
Davenport is the name a series of sofas made by the now-defunct Massachusetts furniture manufacturer A. H. Davenport Company. Due to the popularity of the furniture at the time, the name "Davenport" has become a genericized trademark. It is often used as a synonym for "sofa", especially in the...

 and adorned in a dazzling cheongsam, while showing a "deliciously decadent flash of thigh", became an iconic image. Clad in a cheongsam, Kwan was on the October 1960 cover of Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....

, cementing her status as an eminent sex symbol
Sex symbol
A sex symbol is a celebrity of either gender, typically an actor, musician, supermodel, teen idol, or sports star, noted for their sex appeal. The term was first used in the mid 1950s in relation to the popularity of certain Hollywood stars, especially Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte...

 in the 1960s. The portrait spawned thousands of copycat promotional projects. Chinese and Chinese-Americans became aggrieved after seeing how Chinese women were depicted as promiscuous. Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul
Louis Paul
Louis Paul was an American short story writer, and novelist.He corresponded with John Steinbeck.His work appeared in American Mercury Esquire,...

 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
Flower Drum Song (film)
Flower Drum Song is a 1961 film adaptation of the 1958 Broadway musical Flower Drum Song, written by the composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The film and stage play were based on the 1957 novel of the same name by the Chinese American author C. Y...

 in a related role. The film was distinguished for being the "first big-budget American film with an all–Chinese cast".

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
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 chronicled the media attention Kwan received after starring in two Hollywood films, writing that Kwan's fame peaked in 1962. In 1960, Kwan's image was featured on the cover of Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....

 magazine. Women's magazine McCall's
McCall's
McCall's was a monthly American women's magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-format magazine called The Queen in 1873...

 published an article about Kwan in 1962 titled "The China Doll that Men Like".

In 1961, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry was a regiment of the British Army. It officially existed from 1881 to 1968, but its predecessors go back to 1755. The regiment's traditions and history are now maintained by The Rifles.-The 51st Foot:...

 declined to employ Kwan as a teacher for the soldiers. The infantry was training for military involvement in Malay (now part of Malaysia), and the regiment's commanders believed that the infantrymen should be taught the Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

 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 rider that the instructor 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; it was denied by the infantry, who had just accepted the application of another Chinese woman.

Later films

Kwan's success in her early career was not mirrored in later years. 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". Her later films were marked by multifarious parts, comprising movie and television roles for American and European productions. Kwan discovered that she had to journey to Europe and Hong Kong to escape the ethnic typecasting
Typecasting (acting)
In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...

 in Hollywood that confined her largely to Asian roles in spite of her Eurasian appearance.

Her third movie was the 1962 British drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 The Main Attraction. While she was filming the movie in the Austrian Alps, she found Peter Pock, a hotelier
Hotelier
Hotelier is a South Korean drama broadcast by MBC in 2001. Asahi TV of Japan later remade the series in 2007. Hotelier contains a total of 20 episodes. The word "Hotelier" literally means "a person who owns or runs a hotel"...

 and ski teacher, with whom she immediately fell in love. She reflected that "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
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

, Tyrol
Tyrol (state)
Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...

, Austria. Kwan later gave birth to Bernhard Pock. In December 1963, Pock was constructing a luxury hotel in the Tyrolean Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

. During Christmas of that year, Nancy Kwan visited the location and was able to participate in several pre-1964 Winter Olympics
1964 Winter Olympics
The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from January 29 to February 9, 1964...

 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, Bernhard, who was not yet a year old, to be difficult. She said "he's coming into a time when he's beginning to assert his personality". Fair-skinned and blue-eyed, Bernhard had his father's appearance.

In 1963, Kwan starred as the title character of Tamahine. Playing an English-Tahitian teacher at an old English public school, she was praised by the Boston Globe for her "charming depict[ion]" of the character.

In the 1964 Fate Is the Hunter
Fate Is the Hunter (film)
Fate Is the Hunter is a 1964 film about the crash of an airliner and the subsequent investigation released by 20th Century Fox. It was nominally based on the bestselling 1961 book of the same name by Ernest K. Gann, but the author was so disappointed with the result that he asked to have his name...

, her seventh film, Kwan played an ichnologist
Ichnology
Ichnology is the branch of geology that deals with traces of organismal behavior, such as burrows and footprints. It is generally considered as a branch of paleontology; however, only one division of ichnology, paleoichnology, deals with trace fossils, while neoichnology is the study of modern traces...

. It was her first role as a Eurasian character. 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.

Kwan divorced Peter Pock.

In 1972, Kwan married David Giler, an Austrian hotelier
Hotelier
Hotelier is a South Korean drama broadcast by MBC in 2001. Asahi TV of Japan later remade the series in 2007. Hotelier contains a total of 20 episodes. The word "Hotelier" literally means "a person who owns or runs a hotel"...

, in Hong Kong. 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. While in Hong Kong, Kwan founded a production company, Nancy Kwan Films, which made ads mostly for people in Southeast Asia. She played characters in the TV shows Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...

, Knots Landing
Knots Landing
Knots Landing is an American primetime television soap opera that aired from December 27, 1979 to May 13, 1993 on CBS. Set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles in California, the show centered on the lives of four married couples living in a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle...

, and Trapper John
Trapper John, M.D.
Trapper John, M.D. is an American television medical drama and spin-off of the film MASH, concerning a lovable surgeon who became a mentor and father figure in San Francisco, California. The show ran on CBS from September 23, 1979, to September 4, 1986....

.

In a 1993 interview with the St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...

, Kwan remarked that her son Bernhard 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. Bernhard was an actor, a martial artist, and a stunt performer
Stunt performer
A stuntman, or daredevil is someone who performs dangerous stunts, often as a career.These stunts are sometimes rigged so that they look dangerous while still having safety mechanisms, but often they are as dangerous as they appear to be...

. Kwan and he recorded a tape about tai chi.

Later years

In 1987, Nancy Kwan co-owned the dim sum
Dim sum
Dim sum refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates...

 restaurant Joss. Kwan, producer Ray Stark
Ray Stark
Ray Stark was an American film producer and powerbroker known for his Machiavellian ways.While putting together the Broadway musical Funny Girl - the highly fictionalized account of the life of his mother-in-law, Fanny Brice - its producer David Merrick took Stark and his wife to see an unknown...

, and restaurateur and Hong Kong film director Cecile Tang financed the restaurant, located on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood
West Hollywood, California
West Hollywood, a city of Los Angeles County, California, was incorporated on November 29, 1984, with a population of 34,399 at the 2010 census. 41% of the city's population is made up of gay men according to a 2002 demographic analysis by Sara Kocher Consulting for the City of West Hollywood...

, Los Angeles.

In 1993, Kwan played Gussie Yang, a "tough-talking, soft-hearted Hong Kong restaurateur", in the fictional Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a 1993 American semi fictionalized biographical martial arts action film telling the story of actor and martial arts expert Bruce Lee, starring Jason Scott Lee as Bruce Lee, Lauren Holly and Robert Wagner...

. She played a "pivotal role" in the film, a character based on Seattle restauranteur and political leader Ruby Chow
Ruby Chow
Ruby Chow Ma Seung-gam was a Chinese American restauratuer and politician in Seattle, Washington.She opened Ruby Chow’s Restaurant in 1948, the first Chinese restaurant outside of Seattle's Chinatown, where her staff subsequently included Bruce Lee. Chow served three terms as a King County...

 who hires Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...

 as a dishwasher
Dishwasher
A dishwasher is a mechanical device for cleaning dishes and eating utensils. Dishwashers can be found in restaurants and private homes.Unlike manual dishwashing, which relies largely on physical scrubbing to remove soiling, the mechanical dishwasher cleans by spraying hot water, typically between ...

 and gives him the funds to open a martial arts school.

In May 1993, she completed the production of a film about Eurasians, Loose Woman With No Face, which she wrote, directed, and starred in. She called the film "a slice of life about Euro-Asians in Los Angeles, and it's something I know about".

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." 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 was an increase of Hollywood films about Asians. Kwan could have capitalized on the trend through a role in the 1993 film The Joy Luck Club
The Joy Luck Club (film)
The Joy Luck Club is a 1993 American film about the relationships between Chinese-American women and their Chinese mothers. It is based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Amy Tan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ronald Bass. The film was produced by Oliver Stone and directed by Wayne Wang...

. Because the filmmakers refused to excise a line calling The World of Suzie Wong a "horrible racist film", she declined to be in the film.

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
Fort Mason
Fort Mason, once known as San Francisco Port of Embarkation, US Army, in San Francisco, California, is a former United States Army post located in the northern Marina District, alongside San Francisco Bay. Fort Mason served as an Army post for more than 100 years, initially as a coastal defense...

, San Francisco, and moved to Los Angeles two weeks later. Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

 reviewer Julio Martinez praised Kwan for her ability to "flo[w] easily between haughty sophistication and girlish insecurity".

She produced the feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

 Biker Poet.

In 1996, Kwan's son, Bernie, died after contracting AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

, likely from his lover whom Kwan cautioned him to avoid.

She has appeared on television commercials even into the 1990s. She became a household name after appearing in "late night infomercials" as the spokesperson for the cosmetic "Oriental Pearl Cream".

Kwan has been involved in philanthropy for AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

 awareness. In 1997, she published A Celebration of Life – Memories of My Son, a book about her son who died after being infected by AIDS. 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.

Kwan told the The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star is a McClatchy newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri, in the United States. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes...

 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?"

Kwan appeared in Arthur Wong
Arthur Wong
Arthur Wong Ngok-Tai is a nine time Hong Kong Film Awards-winning cinematographer, actor, screenwriter, film producer and film director.-Career:...

's 2007 documentary Hollywood Chinese
Hollywood Chinese
Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Featured Films is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Academy Award-nominated director Arthur Dong....

, where she and other Chinese dignitaries discussed the past accomplishments and the impending plight of Chinese people in the film industry.
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. She and Meisel resolved to create their own scripts and films about Asian characters. In 2007, they wrote, directed, and produced Star of Sunshine, a Bildungsroman
Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...

 film starring Boys Don't Cry
Boys Don't Cry (film)
Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American independent romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a transgender man played by Hilary Swank, who pursues a relationship with a young woman, played by Chloë...

 actress Cheyenne Rushing, who plays Rachel. An ardent pianist in an afflicted household, Rachel journeys to find her restless father, a musician who deserted her when she was a mere child. In Sunshine, Rachel is supported by Kwan, the manager of a jazz club, who knows a mystery about her. In the film's final scene, Kwan dances, an activity she has enjoyed since her youth.

She serves as a spokeswoman for the Asian American Voters Coalition, a Pan-Asian
Pan-Asianism
Pan-Asianism is an ideology or a movement that Asian nations unite and solidify and create a continental identity to defeat the designs of the Western nations to perpetuate hegemony.-Japanese Asianism:...

 political group established in 1986 to aid Asian actors.

In her performing arts career, Kwan appeared in two television series and over 50 films. She sporadically records audiobook. The Straits Times
The Straits Times
The Straits Times is an English language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore currently owned by Singapore Press Holdings . It is the country's highest-selling paper, with a current daily circulation of nearly 400,000...

 reported in March 2011 that Kwan continues to serve as a film screenwriter and executive.

Selected filmography

  • The World of Suzie Wong
    The World of Suzie Wong (film)
    The World of Suzie Wong is a 1960 British-American romantic drama film directed by Richard Quine. The screenplay by John Patrick was adapted from the stage play by Paul Osborn, which was based on the novel of the same title by Richard Mason...

     (1960), with William Holden
    William Holden
    William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...

  • Flower Drum Song
    Flower Drum Song (film)
    Flower Drum Song is a 1961 film adaptation of the 1958 Broadway musical Flower Drum Song, written by the composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The film and stage play were based on the 1957 novel of the same name by the Chinese American author C. Y...

     (1961)
  • The Main Attraction (1962)
  • Tamahine (1963)
  • The Wild Affair
    The Wild Affair
    The Wild Affair is a 1963 British comedy film directed by John Krish and starring Nancy Kwan, Gladys Morgan and Betty Marsden.-Cast:* Nancy Kwan as Marjorie Lee* Gladys Morgan as Mrs...

     (1963)
  • Fate Is the Hunter
    Fate Is the Hunter (film)
    Fate Is the Hunter is a 1964 film about the crash of an airliner and the subsequent investigation released by 20th Century Fox. It was nominally based on the bestselling 1961 book of the same name by Ernest K. Gann, but the author was so disappointed with the result that he asked to have his name...

     (1964)
  • Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.
    Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.
    Lt. Robin Crusoe USN is a 1966 comedy film released and scripted by Walt Disney. The film stars Dick Van Dyke as a U.S. Navy pilot who becomes a castaway on a tropical island. It was shot in San Diego....

     (1966)
  • Nobody's Perfect (1968)
  • The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969)
  • The Wrecking Crew
    The Wrecking Crew (1969 film)
    The Wrecking Crew, released in 1969 and starring Dean Martin, Elke Sommer, and Sharon Tate is the fourth and final film in a series of American comedy-spy-fi theatrical releases featuring Martin as secret agent Matt Helm....

     (1969), with Dean Martin
    Dean Martin
    Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...

     and Elke Sommer
    Elke Sommer
    Elke Sommer , born Baroness Elke Schletz, is a German actress, entertainer and artist.-Career:Sommer was born in Berlin to a Lutheran minister and his wife...

  • The McMasters (1970)
  • That Lady from Peking (1975)
  • Night Creature (1978)
  • Angkor: Cambodia Express (1982)
  • Walking The Edge
    Walking the Edge
    Walking the Edge is a 1983 crime film, action film written by Curt Allen and directed by Norbert Meisel. The film stars Robert Forster, Nancy Kwan, Joe Spinell, A Martinez, James McIntire, Wayne Woodson, Luis Contreras....

     (1983)
  • Noble House
    Noble House
    Noble House is a novel by James Clavell, published in 1981 and set in Hong Kong in 1963.It is a massive book, well over 1000 pages, with dozens of characters and numerous intermingling plot lines. In 1988, it was adapted as a television miniseries for NBC starring Pierce Brosnan...

     (1988)
  • Miracle Landing
    Miracle Landing
    Miracle Landing is a 1990 television film based on an in-flight accident aboard Aloha Airlines Flight 243 that occurred in April 1988. The Boeing 737-200 was flying from Hilo, Hawaii to Honolulu, Hawaii, when it experienced rapid decompression when a section of the fuselage was torn away...

     (1990) (TV)
  • Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
    Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
    Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a 1993 American semi fictionalized biographical martial arts action film telling the story of actor and martial arts expert Bruce Lee, starring Jason Scott Lee as Bruce Lee, Lauren Holly and Robert Wagner...

     (1993)
  • The Golden Girls
    The Golden Girls (1995 film)
    The Golden Girls is a 1995 Hong Kong film directed by Joe Ma. It is not related to the US TV sitcom of the same name.-Cast:* Cheung Chi-Sing* Cheung Tat-ming - Cousin J.P.* Perry Chiu* Ada Choi - Lulu Shum* Allen Fong* Vincent Kok - Kent* Nancy Kwan...

     (1995)
  • Hollywood Chinese
    Hollywood Chinese
    Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Featured Films is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Academy Award-nominated director Arthur Dong....

     (2007)
  • To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen's Journey
    To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen's Journey
    To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen's Journey is a 2009 docudrama about actress Nancy Kwan. Directed and written by former Warner Bros. executive Brian Jamieson, the film depicts Kwan's meteoric rise to fame when she was selected to star in the 1960 film The World of Suzie Wong and the 1961 film...

     (2010)

Awards

  • 1961 Golden Globe Award
    Golden Globe Award
    The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

     for Most Promising Newcomer – Female, shared with Ina Balin
    Ina Balin
    Ina Balin was an American actress on Broadway and in film.Born as Ina Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, she first appeared on television on The Perry Como Show...

     and Hayley Mills
    Hayley Mills
    Hayley Mills is an English actress. The daughter of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and sister of actress Juliet Mills, Mills began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Tiger Bay , the Academy Juvenile Award...

  • Golden Ring Award
  • Historymaker for Excellence in the Performing Arts – Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles, California
  • Lifetime achievement award, Chinatown, Los Angeles
    Chinatown, Los Angeles
    Chinatown in Los Angeles, California is located in the city's downtown area. Built in 1938, it is the second Chinatown to be constructed in Los Angeles. The original historic Chinatown was founded in the late 19th century, but was demolished to make room for Union Station, the city's major rail...

    , June 2009
  • Maverick Award – Hawaii International Film Festival
    Hawaii International Film Festival
    The Hawaii International Film Festival is a film festival held in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It was started in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko and has been held annually in the fall for two weeks...

    , October 2010

External links

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