Anna May Wong
Birth : 1905-01-03, Los Angeles, California, USA
Death : 1961-02-02
History
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.
Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom.
Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929).
She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work. Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932).
In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture. In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
For decades after her death, Wong was remembered principally for the stereotypical "Dragon Lady" and demure "Butterfly" roles that she was often given. Her life and career were re-evaluated in the years around the centennial of her birth, in three major literary works and film retrospectives. Interest in her life story continues and another biography, Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story, was published in 2009.
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(archive)
A history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
Self (archive footage)
The film traces the life and times of Esther Eng, a San Francisco native known as Hong Kong’s first “directress.” She directed 10 Cantonese talkies.
Herself (archive footage)
Documentary of Anna May Wong, a Chinese-American woman who endured many hardships and heartaches to become an international star of film, stage and television.
Tawny
A pair of lovers plot to kill the woman's rich husband.
Peach Blossom
A shy detergent factory employee unexpectedly finds his feet.
Hiku
An Eskimo who has had little contact with white men goes to a trading post where he accidentally kills a missionary and finds himself being pursued by the police.
Su Lin
After surviving a murder attempt, an auto magnate goes into hiding so his wife can pay for the crime.
Kwan Mei
During World War II, Chinese guerrillas fight against the occupying Japanese forces. A young woman is the secret leader of the villagers, who plot to rescue two downed Flying Tigers pilots who are currently in the custody of the Japanese. The rescue mission takes on even more importance with the arrival of a Japanese general, which signals a major offensive taking place in the area.
Lin Ying
The film tells the story of Chinese guerrillas fighting for the Allied cause in Burma during Early in World War II, Chungking schoolteacher Lin Yang is recruited to help with the dangerous mission of protecting the Allied supply line from Burma into China. In spite of the danger involved, her determination to help is strengthened when one of her young students is killed in a Japanese air raid. Some time later, she is part of a group of Allied representatives departing from Lashio, on a bus traveling the Burma Road back to China. A bridge outage forces them to spend the night in a monastery along the way, and during the night they watch in horror as a supply convoy of trucks is bombed by Japanese planes. The timing and accuracy of the raid brings them to realize that either one of their group, or perhaps the priest in the monastery, is really an enemy agent
Lois Ling
Like the first entry in Columbia's "Ellery Queen" series, Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery depicts its amateur-criminologist hero as an oafish ignoramus. This time around, Chinese ventriloquist Gordon Cobb (Noel Madison), is murdered by a gang of jewel thieves. Baffled by the contradictory clues, Inspector Queen (Charles Grapewin) asks his son Ellery (Ralph Bellamy) to help out.
Kim Ling
A Chinese general's daughter (Anna May Wong) tracks her father to a slave-labor tyrant's (J. Carrol Naish) jungle empire.
Dr. Mary Ling
A Chinese-American surgeon faces a moral dilemma after operating on the mob boss in charge of vice and protection rackets in her city's Chinatown.
Mei Lei Ming
A San Francisco astrologer correctly predicts a ship passenger's death and then helps the police look for the murderer.
Madame Lan Ying
Racketeer Steve Recka, art patron and political power-maker, rules his town and Madame Lan Ying, his beautiful friend and hostess (read:mistress), with an iron hand. He meets Margaret Van Kase, a socialite not impressed by his power nor his wealth, having no money herself, and Steve makes frantic efforts to win her and turns away from the loyal Lin Yang.
Lan Ying Lin
A Chinese-American woman tries to expose an illegal alien smuggling ring.
Herself
Elissa Landi and Charley Chase (playing Asian Charley Chan Chase) host an East Asian themed garden tea party in Hollywood. After introducing a few Hollywood luminaries who are attending the party, they present a number of musical and/or dance performances to entertain the crowd. This set of performances also includes ethnic Chinese actress Anna May Wong modeling some fashions she brought back from her first ever trip to China. Through it all, one of the guests, already inebriated, is having a few problems mixing and serving the cocktails he wants.
Tu Tuan
Fresh from Chinatown in New York, Harry Young has taken over the illegal import business in the seamy Limehouse district of London, where he cold-bloodedly disposes of rivals and runs a smoky nightclub. He falls for a low-class, white pickpocket, diminishing his pride in the Chinese half of his heritage and sparking the jealousy of the nightclub's moody star performer.
Lui Chang
Michael is a young Englishman abroad who deliberately visits a tough Chinese district of Tiger Bay to test his strength. He falls in love and battles a protection racket.
Princess Taou Yuen
The port city of Bristol, England, in the 1800s is home to Java Head, a sailing ship line company. The owner has two sons. One, a handsome seafarer, is in love with a local girl, but cannot marry her due to a long-running feud between their fathers. After a lengthy voyage, he returns with a very exotic, noble Chinese wife, which scandalizes the conservative town. His other son, a "landlubber", seeks to convert to steamships, to the disgust of his father. Even worse, he is secretly dealing in contraband.
Zahrat
Musical retelling of the "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves" Arabian Nights tale.
Mrs. Pyke
In London, a secret society led by lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew collects the assets of any of its deceased members and divides them among the remaining members. Society members start dropping like flies. Sherlock Holmes is approached by member James Murphy's widow, who is miffed at being left penniless by her husband. When Captain Pyke is shot, Holmes keys in on his mysterious Chinese widow as well as the shady Merrydew. Other members keep dying: Malcom Dearing first, then Mr. Baker. There is also an attempt on the life of young Eileen Forrester, who became a reluctant society member upon the death of her father. Holmes' uncanny observations and insights are put to the test.
Self
Eddie Kane wanders round the studio back-lot, opening various doors to see which stars pop out.
Self
A short featuring many stars
Hui Fei
A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.
Ling Moy
At her Chinese father's bidding, a woman goes to murder an enemy and meets a Scotland Yard detective.
French language version. A Chinese cabaret singer will do whatever it takes to save her brother when he is sentenced to death for trying to save her from a lecherous Duke.
Hai Tang
In Russia, a Chinese dancer gives herself to a duke to save her brother's life.
Hai-Tang
Herself / Katherina in Taming of the Shrew
A series of 19 musical and comedy "vaudeville" sketches presented in the form of a live television broadcast hosted by Tommy Handley (as himself).
Hai-Tang
In this, her second silent film with Eichberg, Wong plays Princess Butterfly, an exotic Parisian fan dancer whose “death leap through a circle of naked swords” act goes tragically wrong. Blamed for the impalement of a fellow performer, she runs away and takes shelter with a handsome but starving painter who she brings luck.
Shosho
A young Chinese woman, working in the kitchen at a London dance club, is given the chance to become the club's main act.
Song
After committing a murder for his lover, Gloria, the famous painter Jack is forced to go underground. In the harbor district, he saves the poor Malaysian girl Song in front of two intrusive sailors. She loves him for it, and together Song and Jack appear in the tingle dungeon of the port, he as a knife artist, she as a dancer.
Mandarin's Sweetheart
A likeable pickpocket happens to stumble onto a white slavery ring while plying his trade in Chinatown.
Su
Gregory Kent is on the run for a crime he did not commit.
Singapore Saloon Girl (uncredited)
While Joel and his older ship's captain brother Mark are at sea, the latter is abandoned in Singapore by devious ship's mate Finch who, upon their return, convinces the townspeople that Joel abandoned his brother. Joel, determined to not only find Mark but to see justice done, returns the ship to Singapore.
The Captain's Chinese Love
Su Quan
Sada
An English explorer disturbed by the practices of an isolated tribe attempts to rescue a native girl he has become fascinated with. THE DEVIL DANCER was highly praised at time of release for its exquisite cinematography, especially in the use of light and shadow. The film received an Academy Award nomination in this category. Sadly, it is among the lost. No prints or negatives are known to survive.
Nautch Dancer
The plot is motivated by a pearl necklace, which has caused the death and/or ruination of all its owners. The second screen appearance of detective Charlie Chan
A Flower of the Orient
In San Francisco, a villainous landowner with underworld connections seeks to steal the property of an old Spanish family.
Delamar (scenes deleted)
Stan is a sailor whose girl gets kidnapped by a rough sea captain. Stan dresses in drag and seduces the captain but the captain's wife catches him. Stan and his girl beat a hasty retreat as the captain's wife fires off a parting shot.
Baroness Stoloff
Mr. Buggs is an insect collector. A beautiful and mysterious Asian woman (the lovely Anna May Wong) brings him a rare specimen, but she is actually a wanted thief who has stolen a valuable brooch.
Loo Song
When Mandarin Wu's unmarried daughter becomes pregnant by a young Englishman, he seeks vengeance.
A father throws his daughter out of the house when she marries a man he doesn't approve of. In addition, she also finds herself being lusted after by the sinister owner of an opium den.
Ohati
A young hypochondriac who believes that he has only a week to live. His name, by the way, is Welland Strong. He decides to visit his uncle in the short amount of time he has left in the world. Eventually Strong winds up in Chinatown.
Oneta
Frank Darwin needs to convince Muriel he didn't kill her Father, as claimed by Jasper and Oneta.
Dragon Horse
This obscure silent melodrama, directed by the veteran Harry J. Revier, was filmed entirely in San Francisco with an all-Asian cast that included Chinese-born Jimmy B. Leong and Hollywood's own Anna May Wong.
Nan Lo
When her cotton crop is burned, Barbara Pelham, a beautiful southern girl, comes to New York to find work as a fashion designer, staying with Mrs. Kemp, a woman she meets on the northbound train. In Mrs. Kemp's house, Barbara encounters Peter Heffner, a wealthy stockbroker, and discovers from him that she has taken up residence in a whorehouse. There is a police raid, but Barbara escapes arrest and returns home. Heffner's son, Neil, goes south to inspect some family property and there meets Barbara, with whom he falls in love. They decide to be married, and she accompanies him to New York, where she meets the elder Heffner for a second time. He denounces her as a whore, but Barbara goes to Mrs. Kemp, who explains the misunderstanding to everyone's satisfaction.
Harem Girl in Play (uncredited)
John Douglas, a down-on-his-luck engineer, takes his sweetheart, Sara Deeping, to a play starring Carla King, and he falls in love with the actress.
Annabelle Wu
The Butterworth family attorney Gaspar Le Sage, and a suitor for the hand of Eleanor Butterworth, persuades a beautiful adventuress, Annabelle Wu, to help him steal the official plans for the coastal defense of California from Eleanor's brother, Lieutenant Butterworth.
Tiger Lily
Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them off to Never Never Land, where they meet the nefarious Captain Hook.
Keok
An Alaskan defies robber barons intent on corrupting the new state.
Zira
Aimee is a young girl betrothed to a rascal, Hamid Bey. An American archeologist, Jack Ryder, arrives to help the girl escape ending up in Bey's harem, but it takes the boy ten episodes to finally succeed.
The Mongol Slave
A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.
A young mother, Mildred, doesn't know that her husband Walter is cheating on her. One night she attends a party with a friend of her husband's, and the man gets drunk and begins groping her when they get home. Her husband sees this and uses it as an excuse to sue his wife for divorce. In the ensuing trial he wins, due to fraudulent evidence, and gets custody of the child. Complications ensue.
Honky-Tonk Girl
Jack Standish feels responsible for the failure of the partnership with his father and goes to the South Seas where he falls prey to alcohol, is seduced by Lullaby Lou, a vamp, and tricked by a brutal plantation owner, Gordon Van Brock.
Rose Li
In Shanghai, an American girl who helps runs an opium ring meets an American agent disguised as a mining engineer. The two fall in love, and she has to determine where her loyalties lie.
Anna May Wong (uncredited)
Mary's kid brother needs an operation and, in order to pay for it, Mary goes to a Hollywood studio and applies for a job as an actress. Mary is given a job as a waitress in the commissary, and gets to meet 40 actors, actresses and directors, none of whom tip big enough to enable Mary to earn enough money to pay for an operation. Will Mary become an actress and make some big money?
Lotus Flower
While visiting China, an American man falls in love with a young Chinese woman, but he then has second thoughts about the relationship. The plot is a variation of the Madame Butterfly story, set in China instead of Japan. The Toll of the Sea was one of the first and most successful Technicolor feature films.
Sergeant Blake of the Northwest Mounted Police is sent to the border to break up a ring of smugglers who are bringing illegal Chinese immigrants into Canada. The ring is led by Ah Ming, a "half-breed" who goes by the name of Dr. Lawler. When Blake encounters Lawler, he is experimenting on a white mouse.
Toy Sing, Chin Chow's Wife
This film combines four short films under the title Bits Of Life. The Bad Samaritan is taken from a story in Popular Magazine in which the son of a Chinese father and a white mother is sold into slavery by his father. The boy becomes a criminal and a cunning but cruel thief. The one time he stops to help a lady in distress he is thrown in jail. Wesley Barry is the young boy and Lon Chaney the grown-up criminal.
Lotus Blossom
William Fielding, a young widower, is living in Shanghai with his little boy, David. A young Chinese woman looks after the child, and Foo Chang, a trader, lusts after her. Because he believes she is David's mother, he kills Fielding. Fielding's faithful secretary, Li Clung, takes the boy to San Francisco to be raised by his grandfather. As an adult, David (also played by Gilbert) fights against opium trafficking with Li Clung's help.
A white child is adopted and raised by a Chinese citizen and brought to San Francisco, where no one surmises that she is actually not Chinese.
Loey Tsing (Helen Jerome Eddy), the first love of Chan Wang (Hayakawa), is sold into slavery by her father. Although Chan marries another, he still loves Loey; only the birth of a son relieves his unhappiness. He adores little Chan Toy ("Sonny Boy" Warde) even though he finds nothing to like about his wife.
Chinese Girl (uncredited)
Silent Madden and his daughter Molly have left the criminal underworld of San Francisco thanks to the wise teachings of Chang Low, a Confucian master. But the evil Black Mike Sylva is determined to frame Madden to avenge a mistake from the past…
Half Moon
Dinty is a newsboy whose fight to care for his ailing mother leads him into conflicts with the other boys on the street and then with drug smugglers in Chinatown.
Eurasian woman (uncredited)
Mahlee and Blanche Sackville are half-sisters, Blanche the daughter of an Englishman and his wife, Mahlee of the Englishman and his Chinese mistress. Mahlee rejects her people and attempts to find a life for herself among the Europeans. But she finds the color line impossible to pass and returns to lead her Chinese people in rebellion.
