Biography: Nancy Kwan

Nancy Kwan (born May 19, 1939) (traditional Chinese: 關家蒨; pinyin: Guān Jiāqiàn; Cantonese: Kwan Ka Shin) is an 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 major sex symbol in the 1960s.

Biography

Nancy Kwan was born in Hong Kong to a Cantonese father, architect Kwan Wing Hong, and Scottish mother, model Marquita Scott. Her parents divorced when she was two years old.

During the Japanese invasion in December 1941, Kwan's father, who worked for British intelligence, fled the city on foot along with Nancy and her brother, Ka Keung, and hid out in western China. The family returned to Hong Kong at the end of World War II. Kwan later studied at the Royal Ballet School in England, performing in Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty at Covent Garden. She completed her studies with a certificate to teach ballet.

While she was in England, producer Ray Stark discovered her. At the time, Asian film characters, particularly those in major film roles, were often played by white actors and actresses, using makeup to simulate Asian facial features. However, at the age of 18, Kwan received the starring role of a beautiful and free-spirited Hong Kong prostitute who captivates artist Robert Lomax (William Holden) in the film The World of Suzie Wong (1960). She followed it up the next year with the hit musical film Flower Drum Song (1961) and became one of Hollywood's most visible Eurasian actresses. She became a style icon for the signature Vidal Sassoon bob cut she wore in the 1963 film, The Wild Affair. The asymmetrical hairstyle became a 1960s staple, and variations of the cut are still being modeled today. She spent the 1960s starring in several films, such as The Wrecking Crew and appearing on such television series as Hawaii Five-O. During this time, she commuted between the United States and Europe.

Kwan married Austrian ski instructor Peter Pock and gave birth to a son, Bernhard Pock (Bernie), who died at age 33 in 1996 of AIDS. Kwan returned to her native Hong Kong in 1972 to be with her critically ill father. After his death, she married director-producer Norbert Meisel and returned to the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Since returning to the USA in 1979, she has made guest appearances and co-starred on numerous television productions, such as Kung Fu, The A-Team and ER. She has also appeared on television commercials even into the 1990s. Today, she is politically active as the spokeswoman for the Asian American Voters Coalition.^[1]

Selected filmography

• The World of Suzie Wong (1960), with William Holden
• Flower Drum Song (1961)
• The Main Attraction (1962)
• Tamahine (1963)
• The Wild Affair (1963)
• Fate Is the Hunter (1964)
• Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. (1966)
• The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969)
• The Wrecking Crew (1969), with Dean Martin and Elke Sommer
• The McMasters (1970)
• Night Creature (1977)
• Angkor: Cambodia Express (1982)
• Walking The Edge (1983)
• Noble House (1988)
• Miracle Landing (1990) (TV)
• Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)
• The Golden Girls (1995)
• Hollywood Chinese (2007)

Awards

• 1961 Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Female, shared with Ina Balin and Hayley Mills
• Golden Ring Award
• Historymaker for Excellence in the Performing Arts - Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles, California
• Lifetime achievement award, Los Angeles Chinatown, June 2009

References

1. ^ "Chinese American Heroine: Nancy Kwan". http://www.asianweek.com/2009/05/04/chinese-american-heroine-nancy-kwan/. 

Bibliography

• Pock, Bernie & Nancy Kwan. A Celebration of Life, Memories of My Son. ISBN 0-9664395-0-3

See also

• Stereotypes of East and Southeast Asians in American media

External links

• Official website
• Nancy Kwan at the Internet Movie Database

Nancy Kwan main page.