Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh, PSM ( ; born 6 August 1962) is a Malaysian actress who rose to fame in 1990s Hong Kong action films and is best known internationally for her roles in the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) and Ang Lee's Academy Award-winning martial arts film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000). Yeoh is credited as Michelle Khan in her early Hong Kong films. Born in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, to a Malaysian Chinese family, Yeoh won the 1983 Miss Malaysia pageant at the age of 20. She later achieved fame in the early 1990s after starring in  a series of Hong Kong action films in which she performed her own stunts, such as "Yes, Madam" (1985), "" (1992) and "Holy Weapon" (1993). She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for her work in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Yeoh has appeared in many English, Mandarin and Cantonese language films. Her other works include "Memoirs of a Geisha" (2005), "Reign of Assassins" (2010), "Kung Fu Panda 2" (2011), "" (2016), and "The Lady" (2011), in which she portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2018, she starred in the American romantic comedy-drama film, "Crazy Rich Asians", for which  she received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination as part of its ensemble. She has also co-starred in the 2018 film "" and the 2019 film "Last Christmas". Yeoh was cast as original character Ying Nan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (2021). She received universal critical acclaim for her leading role in the 2022 science fiction film "Everything Everywhere All at Once". On television, Yeoh is known for her role in the "Star Trek" franchise as Philippa Georgiou in the Paramount+ series "" from 2017 to 2020, and its untitled spin -off series, announced in 2019. The film review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes ranked her the greatest action heroine of all time in 2008. In 1997, she was chosen by "People" as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World", and in 2009 the same magazine listed her as one of the "35 All-Time Screen Beauties". Early life and education. Yeoh was born on 6 August 1962 in Ipoh, Perak, to a local ethnic Malaysian Chinese family of Hokkien and Cantonese ancestry. Her parents are Janet Yeoh and Yeoh Kian-teik (died on 5 November 2014), a lawyer  and MCA politician, as well as the man behind the popular express bus service, Sri Maju. Yeoh was keen on dance from an early age, beginning ballet at the age of four. She studied at Main Convent Ipoh, an all-girls secondary school in Ipoh, as a primary student. At the age of 15, she moved with her parents to the United Kingdom, where she was enrolled in a boarding school. Yeoh later studied at the UK's Royal Academy of Dance in London, majoring in ballet. However, a spinal injury prevented her from becoming a professional ballet dancer, and  she transferred her attention to choreography and other arts. She later received a BA degree in Creative Arts with a minor in Drama. Career. In 1983, at the age of 20, Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia World contest. She was Malaysia's representative at Miss World 1983 pageant in London. Later that year, she traveled to Australia where she won another pair of beauty pageants; "Queen of the Pacific" and "Miss Moomba". 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 started her  film career acting in action and martial arts films, where she did most of her own stunts. Already with her third credit, "Yes, Madam" (1985), she was given a main role. She was credited as Michelle Khan in these earlier films. This alias was chosen by D&B Films, who thought it might be more marketable to international and western audiences. Yeoh married Dickson Poon, who headed the D&B Group, in 1987 and retired from acting. Yeoh returned to acting with "" (1992) after having divorced Poon. She then appeared in "The Heroic Trio" (1993), and the Yuen Woo-ping films "Tai  Chi Master" and "Wing Chun" in 1993 and 1994, respectively. She changed her stage name back to Michelle Yeoh when she started her Hollywood career with "Tomorrow Never Dies" in 1997. In the 1997 James Bond film, she played Wai Lin opposite star Pierce Brosnan. Brosnan was impressed, describing her as a "wonderful actress" who was "serious and committed about her work". 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 considered it too dangerous. Nevertheless, she performed all of  her own fighting scenes. Yeoh was then recruited by Ang Lee to star as Yu Shu Lien in the Chinese language martial arts film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000). The film was shot in various provinces around China. Yeoh had grown up speaking English and Malay, before learning Cantonese. She spoke little Mandarin, and learned the Mandarin lines for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" phonetically. The film was an international success, and earned Yeoh a BAFTA 2000 nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role. 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 fantasy action film "" with Brendan Fraser and Jet Li. In October 2011, she was chosen by Guerlain to be its skincare ambassador. Yeoh's role was to help strengthen the French cosmetics company's relationship with Asia. Apart from action films, she is famous for playing nationalists in two biopics. In 1997, she played Soong Ai-ling in the award-winning "The Soong Sisters . In 2011, she portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi in Luc Besson's The Lady". Yeoh was blacklisted by the Burmese government allegedly because of her participation in "The Lady"; she was refused entry to Myanmar on 22 June 2011 and was deported on the same day. Yeoh did not branch out into television until 2015, with her first role playing Mei Foster, wife to the British Ambassador to Thailand, who is secretly a North Korean spy named Li-Na, on the fifth season of the Cinemax/Sky series "Strike Back". In 2016, Yeoh was cast as Starfleet Captain Philippa Georgiou  of the starship USS "Shenzhou" in the series "", and recurs as Georgiou's "mirror" doppelganger later in the story. In 2018, she played family matriarch Eleanor Young in Jon M. Chu's "Crazy Rich Asians", a film adaptation of Kevin Kwan's book of the same name, opposite Constance Wu and Henry Golding. In 2019, she played Christmas themed-store owner "Santa" in "Last Christmas", opposite Henry Golding and Emilia Clarke. The film was released on 8 November 2019, and was a box office success grossing over $121 million worldwide. Yeoh played Ying Nan in Marvel Studios' "Shang-Chi  and the Legend of the Ten Rings", directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. The movie was released in theaters on September 3, 2021. It has also been announced in The Game Awards 2020 that Michelle Yeoh will star in "", a series based on the video game "Ark: Survival Evolved" by Studio Wildcard, in which she plays the role of Mei-Yin Li, the Beast Queen of the Jungle. In 2022, Yeoh starred in the science fiction black comedy film "Everything Everywhere All at Once" from filmmaking duo the Daniels, released in March to near-universal acclaim. In the film, she played  struggling laundromat owner Evelyn Wang, a role that brought her widespread critical acclaim, with David Ehrlich of "IndieWire" claiming it the “greatest performance that Michelle Yeoh has ever given”. Personal life. Yeoh was married to Hong Kong entrepreneur Dickson Poon, owner of businesses such as Harvey Nichols and Charles Jourdan, from 1988 to 1992. In 1998, Yeoh was engaged to Alan Heldman, an American cardiologist. In 2004, she started dating Jean Todt, the former General Manager and CEO of Scuderia Ferrari and later the former president of the FIA. In July 2008 she confirmed her engagement to him during an  interview with Craig Ferguson on CBS's "The Late Late Show". Yeoh is a Buddhist. In March 2008, she visited Vietnam to film a documentary for the Asian Injury Prevention Foundation. Yeoh is also a patron of the Save China's Tigers project committed to protect the endangered South China tiger. Awards, honours and styles. In 1999, she was a member of the jury at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival. 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. On 25 November 2002, she was honoured as The Outstanding Young People of the World (TOYP) (Cultural Achievement) by JCI (Junior Chamber International). On 23 April 2007, French President Jacques Chirac awarded Yeoh as Knight of the Legion of Honour (Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur). The decoration was presented to her in a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on 3 October 2007. She was promoted to Officer of the same French Order (Officier de la Légion d'honneur) by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on 14 March 2012. The decoration was presented  to her at a ceremony held at the president's official residence, the Élysée Palace on that day. In 2011, she received a special award for her contribution to Malaysian cinema at 24th Malaysian Film Festival. On 22 May 2012, she was awarded the Darjah Seri Paduka Mahkota Perak (SPMP) which carries the title Dato' Seri during the investiture ceremony in conjunction with the Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah's birthday. Michelle Yeoh received the Excellence in Asian Cinema award during the 7th Asian Film Awards in March 2013 in Hong Kong. On 1 June 2013, she was awarded  the Panglima Setia Mahkota (PSM) which carries the title Tan Sri during the investiture ceremony in conjunction with the birthday of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah. On 30 November 2013, she presided as the Chief Guest at the International Film Festival of India. On 12 February 2016 she was conferred France's Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres award by the French government in Kuala Lumpur. Michelle Yeoh was included in the BBC's "100 Women" list of 2020. Awards and nominations. Special awards. Yeoh was on the list of the BBC's  100 Women announced on 23 November 2020.