May 19 was Nancy’s birthday. A quick search showed she had only garnered a mention in the comments. This shall not stand!
Nancy was born 1939/5/19 in Hong Kong, to a Chinese father and a Caucasian mother of English/Scottish ancestry. She’s had quite an interesting life, but for our purposes, we’ll touch on just the event that made her. She answered an advertisement in a newspaper regarding auditions for a novel adapted play called The World of Suzie Wong. Although she had no prior acting experience, she was hired, and after attending acting school joined The World of Suzie Wong as it began to tour. She was initially assigned the part of a bar girl, although she did become the understudy for the female lead, France Nuyen.
When Paramount Studios began making the play into a motion picture, France was chosen over Nancy—who was still in the touring production—as the lead, although the film’s director and lead actor, William Holden, preferred Nancy. France was in a rocky relationship with Marlon Brando, had a nervous breakdown and her erratic behavior caused her to be fired from the film and Nancy, auditioning for the part, beat out 30 other actresses. The rest is history. Since then Nancy has about 50 roles to her credit, including the bit of video (from The Wrecking Crew) at the end of the post where she engages in one of the greatest celluloid chopsocky scenes (with Sharon Tate) ever filmed.
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Oldie but goodie
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Saw the movie as a kid and have been in love with Asian women ever since.
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I remember Nancy Kwan quite fondly. Thanks for refreshing my memory of this beautiful, talented actress.
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