Nancy Kwan
Biography
Nancy Kwan is a Chinese-American actress who was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Kowloon Tong. She trained as a ballet dancer at London's Royal Ballet School and later started a ballet school in Hong Kong. After auditioning for producer Ray Stark, she won the title role in The World of Suzie Wong (1960), starring opposite William Holden, and her performance brought her a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer, Female, shared with Ina Balin and Hayley Mills, plus a nomination for Best Actress in a Drama. She followed it with the musical Flower Drum Song (1961), which was distinguished by its all-Asian cast. Her later movies included Fate Is the Hunter (1964), The Wrecking Crew (1968), Wonder Women (1973), and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993). She also worked in television, wrote and directed Loose Woman With No Face in 1993, and produced and acted in Rebellious in 1995.
87years old
Turns 88 on May 19in 199 days
- Born British Hong Kong
- Star sign: TaurusThe sign runs April 20 to May 20
- Also credited as Nancy Kwan Ka-shen
Movie Career
- Films
- 13
- Career span
- 60 years1960 to 2020
First and latest
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Early training
Nancy Kwan trained at the Royal Ballet School in London, studying stage make-up and dancing four hours a day, and took small parts in theater productions through her high school's connections.
A first
For The Wild Affair, director John Krish wanted Nancy Kwan's long hair changed, so Vidal Sassoon gave her a sharp modernist bob in 1963. Media coverage of the cut was widespread, and Sassoon's bob took the name "the Kwan cut."
Behind the camera
Nancy Kwan founded a production company, Nancy Kwan Films, while living in Hong Kong, making advertisements largely for the Southeast Asian market.
Own stunts
Nancy Kwan's martial arts move in The Wrecking Crew, where she fought Sharon Tate's character with a flying kick, was based on her dance background rather than karate training.
Nancy Kwan movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Most often with
Six actors appear in two of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Dean Martin's page
Chuck Norris's page
Jason Scott Lee's page
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's page
Bruce Lee's page
Sharon Tate's page
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.