Nancy Kwan
Birthday: Born in 1939-05-19 in Hong Kong, British Crown Colony [now China]
Deathday: Alive
Nancy Kwan is a Hong Kong-born Eurasian-American actress, who played a pivotal role in the acceptance of actors of Asian ancestry in major Hollywood film roles. Widely praised for her beauty, Kwan was considered a sex symbol in the 1960s.
TV Credits
The A-Team
Character: Lin Wu
A fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel work as soldiers of fortune while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit."...
Knots Landing
Character: Beverly Mikuriya
The domestic adventures, misdeeds and everyday interactions of five families living on a cul-de-sac in a small California community....
Noble House
Character: Claudia Chen
Despite its impressive history and reputation, the international trading company Struan's is in trouble. Overextended by the previous management, new tai-pan Ian Dunross has had to issue public stock to improve the company's financial standing. Even this, however, has not given him the capital he needs. As a result, he is courting a private investor, American billionaire Linc Bartlett. Bartlett decides secretly to back Dunross' arch enemy, Quillian Gornt, who will stop at nothing to destroy Stru...
Partners in Crime
Character:
Partners in Crime is an American crime drama television series that aired from September 22 until December 29, 1984....
ER
Character: Mrs. Chen
ER explores the inner workings of an urban teaching hospital and the critical issues faced by the dedicated physicians and staff of its overburdened emergency room....
The Bob Hope Show
Character: Self
The Bob Hope Show hosted by Bob Hope, debuted on April 9, 1950. During the 1952-1953 season, NBC rotated with other variety shows in a Sunday night block known as "The Colgate Comedy Hour" (Sept. 1950 to Dec. 1955). Also known as, "The Chevy Show with Bob Hope." When the first special debuted in October of 1950 it was the most expensive television program made up to that point - costing an astronomical $1,500 a minute to produce. Bob Hope had his own television show and radio show at the same ti...
What's My Line?
Character: Self - Mystery Guest
Four panelists must determine guests' occupations - and, in the case of famous guests, while blindfolded, their identity - by asking only "yes" or "no" questions....
Golden Globe Awards
Character: Self - Winner
An annual awards ceremony recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign, bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association....
Kung Fu
Character: Mayli Ho
The adventures of a Shaolin Monk as he wanders the American West armed only with his skill in Kung Fu....
Movie Credits
The Wrecking Crew
Character: Wen Yu-Rang
When Count Contini attempts to destroy the world's economy by masterminding the theft of $1 billion in U.S. gold, ICE chief MacDonald summons secret agent Matt Helm to stop him....
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
Character: Gussie Yang
This film is a glimpse into the life, love and the unconquerable spirit of the legendary Bruce Lee. From a childhood of rigorous martial arts training, Lee realizes his dream of opening his own kung-fu school in America. Before long, he is discovered by a Hollywood producer and begins a meteoric rise to fame and an all too short reign as one the most charismatic action heroes in cinema history....
Flower Drum Song
Character: Linda Low
A young woman arrives in San Francisco's Chinatown from Hong Kong with the intention of marrying a rakish nightclub owner, unaware he is involved with one of his singers....
The Last Ninja
Character: Noriko Sakura
A successful art dealer is sought out by law enforcement after terrorists take some scientists hostage. Finding no possible solution, a law enforcement agent approaches the dealer (Beck). Mr. Cosmo, the agent believes the dealer to be linked to the ninja responsible for tracking down criminals and serving them justice. Mr. Cosmo hopes that the ninja's seemingly supernatural skills will remedy this impossible hostage situation....
The World of Suzie Wong
Character: Suzie Wong
A Hong Kong prostitute tries modeling and falls for the artist who's painting her....
Lt. Robin Crusoe U.S.N.
Character: Wednesday
Lt. Robin Crusoe is a navy pilot who bails out of his plane after engine trouble. He reaches a deserted island paradise where he builds a house and begins to adjust to life. He is in for trouble however when a local girl is banished to the island by her father, who then comes after Crusoe....
Be Water
Character: Self - Actress / Friend
In 1971, after being rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to his parents’ homeland of Hong Kong to complete four iconic films. Charting his struggles between two worlds, this portrait explores questions of identity and representation through the use of rare archival footage, interviews with loved ones and Bruce’s own writings....
Ray of Sunshine
Character: Lilly
Rachael, an aspiring pianist with a troubled past, disguises herself as a boy and searches for her father, a free-wheeling musician who abandoned her when she was a child....
Murder on the Yellow Brick Road
Character: Natalie Chung
A pretty young songbird found murdered on Hollywood Boulevard. The crusty old Private Eye who was in love with her. A smooth-talking seductress who hires him to solve the crime. A bulldog detective with a nose for the truth and a leash held by city hall. A long list of suspects with a long list of alibis. A sprinkling of dirty secrets. A zest of clever lies. These are the ingredients of an homage to the PI films of Hollywood's Golden Age....
The McMasters
Character: Robin
When a black Civil War veteran becomes co-owner of the southern McMasters ranch, the incensed local Confederate veterans come gunning for him and his Indian wife....
Night Creature
Character: Leslie
A big-game hunter brings a killer leopard to his private island and turns it loose so he can hunt it down. However, unexpected visitors arrive at the island and interrupt his hunt. Meanwhile, the leopard begins to hunt the inhabitants of the island....
Fate Is the Hunter
Character: Sally Fraser
A man refuses to believe that pilot error caused a fatal crash, and persists in looking for another reason. Airliner crashes near Los Angeles due to unusual string of coincidences. Stewardess, who is sole survivor, joins airline executives in discovering the causes of the crash....
Project: Kill
Character: Lee Su
A former government assassin flees a mind-control program in the Philippines, pursued by his ex-partner, the local police and Asian gangsters....
Honeymoon Hotel
Character: Lynn Hope
A man left at the alter goes on his honeymoon trip anyway, taking his best man along instead....
To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen's Journey
Character: herself
The definitive and true-life story of Nancy Kwan who as a young Eurasian girl from Hong Kong captured the hearts and minds of cinemagoers around the world in her stunning motion picture debut in THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG (1960). Nancy Kwan's story is both fairytale and poignant as it takes its audience on a personal journey, a woman's journey, which is as equally compelling as it is inspiring....
Walking the Edge
Character: Christine Holloway
A Los Angeles taxi driver helps a distraught woman on the run from gangsters after they murder her husband and young son....
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
Character: Revel Drue
A runaway truck containing the corpse of a slain gang leader rolls into a California nightclub owned by Johnny Cain, a hard bitten former free-lance adventurer. The gang threatens to kill Johnny, unless he solves the murder. The CIA also investigates - because it turns out that the slaying was part of a long-range Communist plan to take over the crime syndicate. Cain's search for clues leads him into a maze of beautiful girls, mysterious Oriental statues and murderous spies....
Keys to Freedom
Character: Dr. Lao
The keys to freedom for citizens of Hong Kong are U.S. passports, as their city quakes with the imminent transition to Chinese Communist rule. A deadly black market for passports is thriving, controlled by Hong Kong's warlords....
Wonder Women
Character: Dr. Tsu
Dr. Tsu is a brilliant surgeon with her own exotic island off the coast of Manila. Using her sexy, all-girl army of martial-arts experts, Tsu kidnaps some of the world's greatest athletes. She is able to transplant any body part, so she uses the athletes for spare parts to sell to the world's richest men. Mike Harber is a womanizing, wise-cracking insurance investigator for Lloyd's of London sent to Manila to investigate the disappearance of a jai-alai player, and becomes involved with Dr. Tsu's...
Tamahine
Character: Tamahine
The headmaster of a stuffy British boys' school receives a surprise visit from the now-grown, and very voluptuous, daughter he fathered years earlier in the Pacific islands....
Angkor: Cambodia Express
Character: Sue
In a tale of drama and adventure, young journalist Andy Cameron (Robert Walker) has to get into Cambodia (it is assumed this is during the genocidal reign of Pol Pot). Cameron has to smuggle out his girlfriend Mieng (Nit Alisa) before she is killed (along with the other two million Cambodians), but he cannot manage this alone. He enlists the aid of an American Vietnam vet and the help of a few Khmer men. Eventually, Cameron makes his way into Cambodia where he encounters many dangers, some human...
Reel Horror
Character: Leslie (archive footage)
Evil spirits that emerge from cans of old movie film terrorize a neighborhood....
The Main Attraction
Character: Tessa
An affable drifter on the lam for a murder he didn't commit hides out in a circus....
You Don't Know Jack: The Jack Soo Story
Character: Self
The film tells actor Jack Soo's story through a montage of film and television clips, rare footage, interviews with family members, friends, co-workers, and others who knew him best. From his early appearances on programs such as The Jack Benny Show and Valentines' Day, Soo's life is examined both in the historical context of the times, and the grandeur of an earlier Hollywood where stars like Soo succeeded in a multitude of artistic mediums, reminiscent of vaudevillian times. From Soo's early t...
Nobody's Perfect
Character: Nurse Tomiko Momyama
This military service comedy chronicles the misadventures of the U.S.S. Bustard in Japan. The crew has stolen a Buddha statue from a Japanese village, which if discovered missing would threaten Japanese/American relations. Doc Willoughby is the ship's petty officer, whose antics are constantly getting him into trouble with his captain. On shore leave, Willoughby falls for a seemingly demure Japanese girl in a kimono shop, who actually turns out to be a Japanese/American nurse in the US Navy, Lt....
The Wild Affair
Character: Marjorie Lee
Young office assistant Majorie will marry soon, however she's plagued by doubts if her fiance is the right one. On her last day at work, her male colleagues don't miss a chance to comfort her... and flirt....
Mr. Yunioshi: An Asian Perspective
Character: Self (archive footage)
Mr. Yunioshi: An Asian Perspective provides some insightful commentary of how far we've come concerning Asian characterizations in Hollywood movies from earlier eras....
Arrivederci, Baby!
Character: Baby
Nick tries to kill his wife to get her money, but when learning of this, she plans the same for him!...
The Corrupt Ones
Character: Tina
Freelance photographer Cliff Wilder (Robert Stack) finds himself the target of various colorful villains in this quest for an ancient Chinese treasure when he accidentally acquires the key to its location, the Peking medallion....
Blade in Hong Kong
Character: Lily
Joe Blade is an unclaimed TV pilot film. An American, Blade works in Hong Kong, the home of his adoptive father Chang Chin-tzu. When Chang Chin-tzu is killed and a wealthy man is kidnapped, Blade springs into action....
Cold Dog Soup
Character: Madame Chang
A taxi driver (Quaid) pounds Zen parables (if time money, is time the root of all evil?) into his passenger in a high-speed, idiosyncratic tour of their city's ethnic coteries. All the boy wants is to dispose of his date's dead dog and get back to the babe who's so hot she mutters darkly about being a pressure cooker....
Sally's Beauty Spot
Character: Suzie Wong (archive footage)
A large black mole above an Asian woman's breast serves as a metaphor for cultural and racial difference in this engaging experimental film. Off-screen women's voices and scenes from THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG parallel and counterpoint Sally's own interracial relationships and emerging self-awareness. A provocative and stylish meditation on Asian femininity....
The Pacific Connection
Character: Leni
Ben is a farm boy who comes into conflict with the Evil Spanish Governor and his two sons. To assist in their oppression the Governor hires a Samurai to teach his son the Japanese Katana sword. To counter this, Ben studies under a blind Franciscan monk to obtain some advanced fighting secrets and develop his warrior senses. Additionally Ben must search for the legendary “Iron Reed”. A mystical stick so strong that grows in the lava of an active Volcano....
Hollywood Chinese
Character: Self
Hollywood Chinese is a captivating look at cinema history through the lens of the Chinese American experience. Directed by triple Sundance award-winning filmmaker, Arthur Dong, this documentary is a voyage through a century of cinematic delights, intrigues, and treasures. It weaves together a wondrous portrait of actors, directors, writers, and movie icons who have defined American feature films, from the silent era to the current new wave of Asian American cinema. At once entertaining and enlig...
Window Horses
Character: Gloria
Rosie Ming, a young Canadian poet, is invited to perform at a Poetry Festival in Shiraz, Iran, but she’d rather be in Paris. She lives at home with her over-protective Chinese grandparents and has never been anywhere by herself. Once in Iran, she finds herself in the company of poets and Persians, all who tell her stories that force her to confront her past; the Iranian father she assumed abandoned her and the nature of Poetry itself. It’s about building bridges between cultural and generational...
Supercock
Character: Yuki Chan
An American cowboy in the Philippines gets mixed up in cockfighting....
Slaying the Dragon
Character:
A highly critical documentary about the history of Asian-American actresses in Hollywood. Features interviews with pioneering Asian-American actresses and clips from classic films such as "The Thief of Bagdad", "The Good Earth", and "The World of Suzie Wong", interspersed with Asian/feminist sociological commentary....
Paint It Black
Character: Margaret
A young woman attempts to deal with the death of her boyfriend while continuously confronted by his mentally unstable mother....
Miracle Landing
Character: C. B. Lansing
Cracks are noticed in the ceiling of an aircraft. They widen & a large portion of the fuselage tears off & an emergency landing is attempted. Based on actual events....
Babies
Character: Dr. Liu
The physical and emotional trauma of three close-knit women trying to have children is explored....
The Magic Stone
Character: Mei Ching
...
Spring Comes Not Again
Character:
Spring Comes Not Again is a tragic story of romance and betrayal, set in contemporary Hong Kong. The film opens with a deeply distraught Betty (Nancy Kwan) spinning her red MG convertible in circles on the beach, and cuts away to tell the story of her life in flashback. Nancy Kwan brings a wide variety of emotions to her character in Spring Comes Not Again, and the camera photographs her in many beautiful shots. The film is notable because is Nancy Kwan's only Chinese language feature; all the d...
Mr. P's Dancing Sushi Bar
Character: Mitsuko McFee
...
For Life or Death
Character: Ling Li
A man named Kaan Woo (James Lew) is escaping his dark past, having been involved with a cult of brown shroud-wearing, druid-like monk warriors that have mystical powers. He apparently wanted out, because their evil queen, Ling Li (Nancy Kwan) has sent her servant, Sir Xavier (Richard Norton) to do her bidding - i.e., eliminate Woo. During a battle with the dark forces, Woo's soul is transferred into the body of homeless drunkard Earl Stockman (Mark Pellegrino). Now this bum is as surprised as an...
Cocoon
Character: Rosemary Quong
In this pilot film to the "Hawaii Five-0" television series, special law officer Steve McGarrett tracks down Red Chinese operatives and their spy ring in Honolulu....
That Lady from Peking
Character: Sue Ten Chan
Max Foster (Carl Betz), an American newspaper reporter, is in Hong Kong to assist a defecting Russian diplomat. In return for arranging an escape, the diplomat must turn over to Foster a diary revealing the true events taking place in China. While making his escape, the defector is killed ant the diary vanishes. The reporter sets off on a search for it, from Hong Kong to Australia. The chase ends in an action-filled climax, with the journalist finally meeting up with "That Lady from Peking" (Nan...