Michelle Yeoh - Biography :     

Michelle was born Yeoh Choo Kheng on August 6, 1962, into a lawyer's family living in Ipoh, Malaysia.  She was an active kid, swimming most weekends with her friends at the Ipoh Swimming Club located next to her house.  In fact, Michelle was a tomboy who loved all kinds of sports, but she especially loved swimming.  She represented Malaysia as a teenager at national competitions for swimming, diving and squash and was Malaysian Junior Squash Champion one year as well (and, it seems, begins a pattern of being strong at physically demanding efforts, luckily for us!).  She also enjoyed playing the piano and practicing Chinese painting styles, but her real love since before she could walk was dance.

Michelle was dancing before she was walking, and particularly liked ballet.  She entered ballet school at the age of four.  As a young girl, she was sent to convent school in Malaysia, learning English among other subjects, and, at 15, was placed in boarding school in England.  Staying in England,  she went to college at the Royal Academy of Dance in London.  She was majoring in dance when she sustained an injury during ballet practice.  Informed by doctors that she had rotated a disk in her spine which she could only make worse if she continued her dream, Michelle was forced to switch majors and instead graduated in 1982, receiving a B.A. degree in Creative Arts with a minor in Drama.

Things went crazy for her when she got home from graduate school in 1983.  Unbeknownst to Michelle, her mom had entered her daughter in the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant, and had, in fact, gotten Michelle past the qualifying rounds before even getting back to Malaysia!  Well, to please her mother, the self-confessed tomboy went ahead with it and was crowned Miss Malaysia at the age of 21 (later that year, she also became Miss Moomba in Australia, but I'm not quite sure what that one is).  Instead of returning to England to continue her advanced studies, she stayed in Asia and served out her term as Miss Malaysia, which she equates with being a goodwill ambassador.

During this period, she met with a Hong Kong businessman, Dickson Poon, who was looking for someone to star in a commercial for a brand of watches with action star Jackie Chan.  Michelle was invited to Hong Kong and did the commercial, along with another one with another Hong Kong star, Chow Yun-Fat (as many of you know, these are names that will pop up again later).  Poon then offered her an acting contract to star in a film in his recently created film production company, D&B Films (the D stands for Dickson, and the B is part of his partner's chinese name, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo).  Her first film was the frightening Owl Vs Dumbo, in which Michelle played the damsel in distress (see the filmography section for reviews).  In reality, this movie is a comedy, but it was so startling for someone who'd only seen Michelle kick ass to see her cry when some teen yells at her in a classroom...well, you get the idea. Also starring in the movie was Sammo.  During the filming process, Michelle became interested as she watched the stuntpeople do their work, and knew she wanted to do that too.  She felt it was very close to dancing, and that meant it wouldn't be all that difficult. So, when D&B gave her the option of choosing her next film, she unhesitatingly chose to do an action movie.

In order to pull this off, Michelle went into intensive physical training at a gym for ten or twelve hours a day, practicing all kinds of punches, kicks and the martial arts moves with a bunch of stunt guys.  Finally, in 1985, she had a cameo role as a karate instructor in Jackie and Sammo's comedy, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars.  Also in 1985, Michelle had her second major film appearance opposite Cynthia Rothrock, a karate champion who was shifting into doing movies, in Yes Madam.  For both, this was their first starring role; for Michelle, it was her breakout movie, making her one of the most bankable female stars in Hong Kong.  During filming, Michelle fought for the right to do her own stunts, and was allowed to perform her first dangerous stunt in it.  She flipped backwards on a railing and smashed her head through the glass bannister, grabbing two thugs and then yanking and throwing them off the balcony! Showing her willingness and ability to do the difficult acts, Michelle kicked her way in a male-dominated world of action movies.

The next year found Michelle in her next actioner, Royal Warriors, in which she participated in some of the most grueling and brutal fight sequences she's ever done.  In her next movie, Magnificent Warriors, Michelle broke a major artery in her thigh, a serious enough injury that put her out of action films so she could sufficiently recover.  By this time, she was engaged to Dickson Poon, and he insisted that her next movie be more conventional.  Thus, in 1987, she did Easy Money, which involved no extremely dangerous stunts nor any fight scenes (well, no dangerous stunts unless you consider the car chase and then there's that horse jump in front of a speeding train...but nothing particularly dangerous...).  Easy Money was the last film Michelle was to do for D&B Films.

Michelle and Poon were married in a huge wedding in February of 1988.  On the surface, they appeared to be the perfect couple, a billionaire and former beauty queen.  Poon insisted she retire from acting, and so Michelle became a fixture on the Hong Kong society pages and fashion boutiques as Dickson Poon's wife.  However, the marriage lasted only 3 years.  The divorce swirled with rumor and innuendo, but to this day only the two of them actually know the reasons behind the seperation (though to this day they remain friends).  Soon after, Poon dissolved D&B Films.

Looking for her first film in several years, Michelle was approached by Stanley Tong, who was working with Jackie Chan on the third of the Supercop series of movies (which would eventually be called Police Story III:  Supercop and just Supercop when released in the US).  A Jackie Chan vehicle, Michelle matched him stunt for stunt (up until the helicopter stunt, which she wanted to do but couldn't because Tong was worried that Chan would have to come up with something truly insane to top it).  Michelle stole the show, though in truth they both shined due to their friendly competition.  The film broke the box office record in Asia.

Later that year, Michelle starred in two more movies: The Heroic Trio and Butterfly & Sword.  Heroic Trio was fun for her, since she starred with her two best friends, Maggie Cheung and Anita Mui.  They stayed long after shooting was done for the day, often having barbeques on the set and having a good time into the night.  As for Butterfly & Sword, well, she actually sang the ending theme song (something she is always embarrassed to admit, though personally I thought she sounded terrific!).

In 1993, she starred in six movies: Project S (a spinoff of Police Story III), The Executioners (the dark sequel to Heroic Trio), Holy Weapon (an action comedy), Wonder Seven (an action adventure), and two movies directed by Yuen Woo-Ping, Tai Chi Master (with Jet Li) and Wing Chun (with Donnie Yen; as an aside, TNT (Turner Network Television), an American cable channel, dubbed and showed Heroic Trio, Executioners and Wing Chun as a Michelle Yeoh Triple Feature in 1997 as a lead up to Tomorrow Never Dies).  Wing Chun and Wonder Seven were released in 1994.

At this point, it would be good to remind people that Michelle is not a delicate flower vase.  She does indeed do many, if not all, of her own stunts, and has the injuries to prove it.  She's been the highest paid actress in Hong Kong for quite some time, and has paid the price to get that honor.  In Hong Kong films, despite the fact that action films rely on choreography, editing and cinematography, they throw (and connect) real punches and kicks.  When you see a fight and you see the strikes connect, they really are connecting.

Early in her career, Michelle has revealed that she sustained burns in one scene in Royal Warriors, and during Magnificent Warriors (as already stated), she popped an artery in her leg when she was kicked too hard in the thigh.  Though 1993 was a very successful year for her, she triggered her old spinal injury on the last fight sequence for Holy Weapon.  Not wanting to screw up the schedule for her other films, she continued after only a brief stay in the hospital and fought through the pain.  In the final filmed scene in Executioners, the actor who was lifting her up off the ground accidentally touched the injured spot in her spine which caused her to convulse and vomit.  During the shooting of Wing Chun, she dislocated her left elbow.  Later, she again aggravated her back injury by falling off a horse.  For one day during location shooting near Beijing, she couldn't even move because of the pain.

Returning to Hong Kong, Wonder Seven was waiting for her, and, despite what had happened, she decided not to cause problems and went right on to the set.  During that shoot, she aggravated her back during a stunt in which she fell into the bay.  When she finally went to the hospital, the doctor was shocked she was able to withstand the pain before seeking medical attention.  She was ordered to stay in the hospital for a week.

Michelle had planned to take a break in 1994, but could not stay away from the hospital.  She tore up her right knee in an Alpine skiing accident, having to undergo surgery to reconnect everything.  To this day, she has a screw in that knee.  It took her several months to recover, and in that year she only made a cameo appearance in a movie, Shaolin Popey II: Messy Temple.

Worse was to come.  In 1995, during one of the last scenes shot for Ann Hui's Ah Kam: Story of a Stuntwoman, Michelle almost broke her back jumping off a freeway overpass (one of her dramatic/action roles, she was great in it, though the ending credits are very difficult to watch as they show the crew rescuing Michelle, carefully carrying her to a waiting van on the mattress she landed on).  She had two stunts to do: jump off a 70 foot freeway overpass onto a passing truckbed loaded with matresses, and then a similar 18 foot drop for the closeup.  Except, on the 18 foot drop (she did the 70 foot one just fine), she played it like it was the 70 foot drop and came down badly, basically on her face.  She says she recalls seeing her feet in front of her face (ouch!), felt her legs whack her head, and she heard something go CRACK!  It was a miracle she survived it; she had a cracked rib and deep tissue bruising in her back.  She spent three weeks in hospital.

During her recuperation, Michelle thought about the next step in her career.  She wanted a more dramatic role, and so she starred in Mabel Cheung's The Soong Sisters, a purely dramatic role which she starred once again with buddy Maggie Cheung.  It was Michelle's first non-action movie, and she was nominated at the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

In 1996, Police Story III was dubbed and released in the United States as Supercop.  This got her exposure in Hollywood, and made her the most successful Hong Kong actress in Hollywood.  It led to her role in 1997's James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, in which she starred opposite Pierce Brosnan and, once again, stole the show.  Bond got his female equal, able to jump, fight, and spy at his level.  This film brought her to the attention of many fans, who have been following her ever since.

Also in 1997, Michelle had a cameo appearance in Moonlight Express, a film that was being made by a good friend of hers.  She did it for free, and insisted that she not be used for the publicity of the movie.  It was another purely dramatic turn in a film, and Michelle does a great job (again, see the Filmography section for reviews).  Meanwhile, Ang Lee approached Michelle during the promotion for Tomorrow Never Dies and told her about a movie he was going to do.  It was going to be his first martial arts film, and it was (as he described it) martial arts meets Sense and Sensibility.  She would star opposite Jet Li (her costar from Tai Chi Master, who eventually declined and was replaced by Chow Yun-Fat), and would she like to be a part of it?  She jumped at the chance, and turned down several Hollywood offers to do the film.  Called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it came out in 2000 to the raves of critics and to major international (and US) success.  She was nominated as Best Actress at the British Academy Film Awards and won the honor at the AMMY Awards.  She was also named International Star of the Year at Sho-West, the world's biggest motion picture industry convention.

During the TND promotional tour in London, she met Alan Heldman, a cardiologist from Baltimore.  They began dating, and they got engaged in 1999.  He went with Michelle to many events, and Michelle travelled between Hong Kong and Baltimore.  However, they broke their engagement in June of 2000.

In 2000, Michelle started her own production company, Mythical Films, and released Mythical's first movie, The Touch, which she produced as well as starred in. Rights to The Touch for the US were bought up by Miramax, which has not released it. This was the period leading up to Kill Bill and Miramax bought up the distribution rights to a goodly number of Asian movies and held onto them. The film did fairly well in Hong Kong, and it did very well in other countries in Asia, but the special effects company wasn't able to finish the FX shots by the release date and the final product was not perfect. The version Miramax has, however, is complete, and the movie itself is pretty good. It has been released in only a few Western countries, however. Then Mythical released Silver Hawk (originally known as Masked Crusader) in January 2004. Because the audience didn't go for The Touch in HK, Hong Kong receipts were very low. However, it did very well in other Asian countries. It was released in the US on DVD, and you can find it on the shelves of most stores or get it on Amazon.com. During this period, Michelle was linked romantically to her partner, Thomas Chung, by the Hong Kong press, who made many stories. However, it was also never confirmed, and in any case, the same press repored that in mid-2004 they apparently broke up. She apparently met her current boyfriend, Jean Todt, at an F1 party in Shanghai in the fall of 2004 and they have been dating ever since. Todt is the manager of the Ferrari F1 racing team.

After Silver Hawk, Michelle starred in Memoirs of a Geisha, based on the best selling novel by Arthur Golden. After completing Memoirs, she went to England and filmed Sunshine, which has a release date in October 2006 (this date has been changed to March 16, 2007). Memoirs won 3 Oscars, but was not nominated in the acting category despite strong performances from Michelle and several other actors in the film. Currently, however, despite being linked with a French film, Boarding Gate, as well as Bitter Sea, a project she is apparently to star in with Chow Yun-Fat, she recently started filming her next movie, True North, on Svalbard, a Norwegian island north of the Arctic Circle. True will apparently be a dark romance and investigate the differences between native and modern peoples. Once True North is complete, perhaps sometime in late October or early November, she will then switch to Prague to work on a French sci-fi action film titled Babylon A.D. Based on Maurice Dantec's Babylon Babies, the lead will be Vin Diesel.

There is also the possibility she may be involved with the new Indiana Jones movie. The Indy movie, known as Indy 4 in most circles, is having it's script reviewed a final time. If it happens, casting will take place. Hopefully we'll hear Michelle's name announced. There was, however, a very tragic event just before the release of Silver Hawk. One of Michelle's best friends, Anita Mui, who also costarred with her in Heroic Trio and Executioners, died of cancer at the age of 40 on December 30, 2003. This was a very sad day for Michelle. Anita was one of the top singers in Asia, referred to as the Madonna of Asia. She is greatly missed.


Last Updated 9/28/06 

 

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