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Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh at Cannes, 2000
Chinese name	楊紫瓊 (Traditional)
Chinese name	杨紫琼 (Simplified)
Pinyin	Yáng Zǐqióng (Mandarin)
Jyutping	Joeng4 Zi2king4 (Cantonese)
Birth name	Yeoh Choo-Kheng
Born	6 August 1962 (1962-08-06) (age 47) Ipoh, Perak, Malaya
Occupation	Actress/Dancer
Years active	1984–present
Spouse(s)	Dickson Poon (1988–1992)
Awards MTV Asia Awards Asian Film Award 2004

Dato' Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng (simplified Chinese: 杨紫琼; traditional Chinese: 楊紫瓊; pinyin: Yáng Zǐqióng; Cantonese (Yale romanization): yèuhng jí kìhng; born 6 August 1962) is a BAFTA Award-nominated actress and dancer, well known for performing her own stunts in the action films that brought her to fame in the early 1990s.

Born in Ipoh, Malaysia (then Malaya), she is based in Hong Kong and was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1997.

She is best known in the Western world for her roles in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, playing Wai Lin, and the multiple Academy Award-winning Chinese action film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which she was nominated the BAFTA for "Best Actress". In 2008, the film critic website Rotten Tomatoes ranked her the greatest action heroine of all time.¹

She is credited as Michelle Khan in some of her earlier films.

Early life and career

Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng was born to a prominent ethnic Chinese family in Ipoh, Malaysia on August 6, 1962. Her parents are Janet Yeoh and Dato' Yeoh Kian Teik, a lawyer and MCA politician.² She was very active when she was young and had a passion for dance. She started to study ballet at the age of four years old. At 15 years old she moved with her parents to England, where she was enrolled in a boarding school. Yeoh later studied at the Royal Academy of Dance in London, majoring in Ballet. However, a spinal injury shattered her lifelong dream of being a prima ballerina, and she consequently had to switch her focus away from dance to choreography and other arts. She later received a B.A. degree in Creative Arts with a minor in Drama.

In 1983, at the age of 21, Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant. She was also Malaysia's representative at the 1983 Miss World pageant in London. From there, she appeared in a television commercial with Jackie Chan which caught the attention of a fledgling Hong Kong film production company, D&B Films.

Yeoh's career in Hong Kong started with a few commercials for Charles Jourdan, opposite action movie heroes Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat before being offered a film contract. The Charles Jourdan brand was handled by D&B Group in Hong Kong, run by Yeoh's future husband, Dickson Poon. In 1988, she retired from acting after marrying Poon. Three years later, the couple divorced and Yeoh returned to acting in 1992. Her first movie after the comeback was Police Story 3: Supercop, which was partly shot in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Ascension to fame

Yeoh started her film career acting in action and martial arts films such as The Heroic Trio in 1993, and the Yuen Woo-ping films Tai Chi Master and Wing Chun in 1994. Yeoh has had no formal martial arts training and she relies on her dance training and instructors, and does many of her own stunts.³

Yeoh learned English and Malay before Cantonese, and cannot read Chinese characters. As she does not speak Mandarin, she learned the lines for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon phonetically.

She starred in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies as Wai Lin (1997). Natasha Henstridge was rumored to be cast in the lead Bond girl role but eventually Yeoh was confirmed.⁴ Brosnan was impressed, describing her as a "wonderful actress" who was "serious and committed about her work".⁵ He referred to her as a "female James Bond" in reference to her combat abilities. She wanted to perform her own stunts but was prevented because director Roger Spottiswoode ruled it too dangerous and uninsured. However, she did perform all of her fighting scenes.⁶⁷ Thereafter, she was offered the role of Seraph in the two sequels to The Matrix, but she could not accept due to a scheduling conflict (the Matrix writers then changed Seraph into a male character and cast Collin Chou in the role).⁸ In 2002, she produced her first English film, The Touch through her own production company, Mythical Films.

In 2005, Yeoh starred as the graceful Mameha in the film adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha, and she continued her English-language work in 2007 with Sunshine. In 2008, Michelle Yeoh also starred in the fantasy action film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with actors Brendan Fraser and Jet Li.⁹

Personal life

Yeoh is related to other famous Yeoh such as Yeoh Ghim Seng and Benjamin Yeoh.

Yeoh was previously married to Hong Kong businessman Dickson Poon, who owns businesses such as Harvey Nichols and Charles Jourdan.¹⁰

On 31 July 2008, Yeoh confirmed the rumor that she was engaged to Jean Todt, a leading figure in motor racing, during an interview with Craig Ferguson on CBS's The Late Late Show.

In March 2008, she visited Vietnam to film a documentary for the Asian Injury Prevention Foundation (AIPF).

Michelle Yeoh is also a supporter of the Save China's Tigers project which aims at saving the endangered South China Tiger through rewilding and release them into the wild. She has become an ambassador for this conservation project.¹¹

Awards

On 19 April 2001, Yeoh was awarded the Darjah Datuk Paduka Mahkota Perak (DPMP), which carries the title Dato' by Sultan Azlan Shah, the Sultan of Perak, her home state, in recognition of the fame she brought to the state.¹² The award was given in conjunction with the Sultan's 73rd birthday celebrations.

On 25 November 2002, Michelle Yeoh was honored as The Outstanding Young Persons of the World (TOYP) (Cultural Achievement) by JCI (Junior Chamber International).

On 23 April 2007 President Jacques Chirac awarded her Knight of the Legion of Honour of France. The decoration was presented to her in a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on 3 October 2007.¹³

Nominations

BAFTA Film Award 2001 – Best Actress (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)

Filmography

• The Owl and Dumbo (1984)
• Yes, Madam¹⁴ (1985)
• Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars (1985)
• In the Line of Duty a.k.a. Royal Warriors (1986)
• Magnificent Warriors (1987)
• Dynamite Fighters (1987)
• Easy Money (1987)
• Police Story III: Supercop (1992)
• The Heroic Trio (1993)
• Butterfly and Sword (1993)
• Executioners (1993)
• Holy Weapon (1993)
• Once a Cop aka. Project S aka. Supercop 2 (1993)
• Twin Warriors (1993)
• Wing Chun (1994)
• The Tai-Chi Master (1994)
• Shaolin Popey 2 – Messy Temple (1994)
• Wonder Seven (1994)
• The Beautiful Secret Agent (1994)
• The Stunt Woman (a.k.a Ah Kam) (1996)
• The Soong Sisters (1997)
• Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
• Moonlight Express (1999)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
• The Touch (2002)
• Silver Hawk (2004)
• Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
• Fearless (2006) (directors cut only)
• Sunshine (2007)
• Far North (2007)
• The Children of Huang Shi¹⁵ (2008)
• Babylon A.D.¹⁶ (2008)
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor¹⁷ (2008)
• Turning Point – A Journey on the World's Killer Roads (documentary) ^{18 19} (2009)
• True Legend (2010)
• Doraemon: The New Record of Nobita: Spaceblazer (2010)
• Jianyu Jianghu ²⁰ (2010)

See also

• Woman warrior

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michelle Yeoh

• Michelle Yeoh Web Theatre – complete website on Michelle Yeoh
• Michelle Yeoh at the Internet Movie Database
• Supercop as Woman Warrior at Salon magazine.
• Interview with Michelle Yeohon the Tavis Smiley show
• Sunday Times feature

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