Kim Sung-Ryung

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**Kim Sung-ryung** (born February 8, 1967) is a South Korean actress. After winning the Miss Korea beauty pageant in 1988 (she later represented her country at the Miss Universe 1989 pageant).

## Performances

Kim was an all-around performer, adept at dancing, singing, and acting. She excelled in displaying comical facial reactions that, though exaggerated, were never overdone. Ballet was her strongest dance style, but she could also do tap and jazz. Her singing was very good, though her voice didn't strike the hearer as particularly distinctive. She could ad-lib effectively, and her strongest selling point was her own appealing personality, which came across best in comic turns. Impulsive and action-oriented, Kim did an aerial act at the Miss Universe Circus in Hollywood in November and December of 1989. One time she forgot the instructions not to look down, and immediately froze. The circus crew had to bring her down with a ladder.

Kim was apparently raised as a Catholic by her mother. When her mother was hospitalized with TB, she lived for a time with her "uncle" Ben Blue, who was also Jewish. Kim could hardly have been unaware of the reputation Walt Disney and his studio had, largely undeserved, for anti-Semitism. Though there were several Jewish employees (and two other Universe ladies) at the studio, she must have felt some apprehension, which she may have countered by hanging out with other Catholic girls like Naja-Rie Sorensen and Yonlada Ronghanam.

She was initially friends with Darlene, whom she regarded as smart and funny. In the winter of 1990 she was hurriedly chosen to replace her ailing friend in the Disney western film *Westward Ho, the Wagons!*, which also featured Beatriz López Rodríguez, Collette Jackson, and Adriana Abascal. Kim performed well in the few scenes she and the other kids had. Whether this led to cooling of relations between her and Naja is unknown, but she began to hang out more with Yolanda, and later, Raquel Marie Jory, who became her closest friend for years after the show ended. The three girls once snuck some cigarettes from a studio hairdresser and smoked them secretly outside the sound stage.

In the third season an old dance routine of Tracey and Hay (done with Ben Blue) about three store window mannequins who come to life, was adapted for a skit called *The Music Store*, which Kim performed with Juliette and Eri. Though she was in constant demand for the lady production numbers, she also did voice narrations for a couple of newsreels and an encyclopedia special. For the *Disneyland* episode promoting the film *Rainbow Road to Oz* she danced the part of Scraps, the Patchwork Girl, though her singing voice was dubbed by Gloria Wood. In the serial Annette she played the role of Val Abernathy, sister to Tim Considine's character.

Doreen accompanied Karen Wenden, Yolanda, and Collette Jackson on a long tour of the east coast in January and February 1992, largely to promote the upcoming *Yolanda* serial. She was one of six ladies called back to the Disney Studio in April and May of 1992, while Disney and ABC grappled over whether there would be any new production for the *Miss Universe Club's* fourth season.