At 60-years-old, celebrated Ipoh-born actress Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh has reached the very pinnacle of her acting career by achieving a truly landmark moment in not just for herself, but for Asians in across the globe in the filmmaking industry — she has become the very first woman of Asian descent, as well as the very first Southeast Asian and Malaysian to win the top title of Best Actress at this year’s Academy Awards.
This makes her the second woman of colour to receive what is often considered to be the filmmaking industry’s highest accolade in the award’s almost 100 year history. Halle Berry was the first when she nabbed the same title back in 2002.
But even before then, Michelle’s reputation as a celebrated actress has never been in dispute, especially among Asian audiences in this part of the world.
Michelle Yeoh, an Ipoh-born ballerina
Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng (楊紫瓊) was born on August 6th, 1960 in Ipoh, Perak to the late lawyer and Perak MCA chairman Mr Yeoh Kian-teik and his wife, Janet Yeoh. Despite hailing from a family of both Cantonese and Hokkien descent, she grew up speaking only Malay and English, and could neither read nor write in Mandarin.
Despite her eventual foray and unprecedented success in film, she initially expressed an interest in pursuing a professional career in ballet. Training since the age of four, she even went so far as to move to London at the age of 15 for the sake of dance and eventually landed a spot in the esteemed company of the Royal Academy of Dance.
Unfortunately, it was not meant to be when she suffered from a spinal injury during a ballet practice and was forced to give up the prospect of professional ballet. With that said, her love for the stage and for the arts never faded, and Michelle remained intent on being involved in ballet by opening her own school. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Arts with a minor in Drama.
Pageant queen turned Hong Kong action star
Upon returning briefly to Malaysia in 1983, she was surprised to learn that her mother had signed her up to participate in the Miss Malaysia World pageant at 20-years-old, which she won.
Consequently, this would lead her to participate in the Miss World 1983 pageant held in London, where she placed 18th overall from among 72 global delegates.
It would be through her involvement in the global pageant circuit that led to small commercial opportunities, including a Guy Laroche campaign she landed opposite Jackie Chan. That television spot would eventually catch the eye of fledgling Hong Kong-based fil production company, D&B Films, which decided to sign her on and jump-started her career in Cantonese cinema.
At the time, Michelle only had a passive comprehension of Cantonese owing to her upbringing in Ipoh, but eventually mastered the dialect in order to work in Hong Kong filmmaking. But it wouldn’t be until 1985 with the screening of Yes, Madam, did Michelle begin landing larger roles.
This was followed by a handful of other major successes in the Hong Kong box office including 1992’s Police Story 3: Super Cop opposite Jackie Chan, and 1993’s The Heroic Trio, opposite late Cantopop diva Anita Mui and Maggie Cheung. Eventually, she etched her name as a bona-fide Hong Kong action star and was well-known for doing her own stunts.
A Hollywood breakout star as Bond girl Wai Lin
In 1997, she made the leap into Hollywood by taking up the role of Bond girl Wai Lin in the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies opposite Pierce Brosnan, who was so impressed by her combat abilities that he even dubbed her the ‘female James Bond’.
Her acting prowess on the global stage was further cemented with her role in Ang Lee’s classic martial arts flick, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. For the movie, Michelle had to learn her Mandarin lines phonetically as she had not yet learnt to speak the language.
With the success of both films granting Michelle wider exposure to Western audiences, she would go on to star in other blockbuster movies from the aughts, including Memoirs of a Geisha, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and Sunshine. During the beginning of the twenty-tens (2010s), she would first star as Burmese Opposition leader and Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in French director Luc Besson’s 2011 autobiographical film, The Lady.
Of Marvel superheroes, Crazy Rich Asians and an Oscar win
Subsequently, she joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe through a brief cameo as superhero Starhawk in the 2017 movie Guardians of The Galaxy, Vol. 2. Michelle would also enter the world of television through her role as Enterprise Captain Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek Discovery, which ran from 2017 to 2020.
This was followed by 2019’s Crazy Rich Asians, where she starred opposite Malaysian-British actor Henry Golding as Eleanor Young, and another appearance in the MCU as Ying Nan in Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings.
She saw her biggest career break in 2022 through A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once as protagonist Evelyn Wang, which led to Michelle winning Best Actress during the Golden Globes, Screen Actor’s Guild Awards, and the Academy Awards. She is the first woman of Asian descent to win the latter two awards.
As for future roles, Michelle is set to star in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming mystery film, A Haunting In Venice, as well as in Avatar 3 and 4 as Dr. Karina Mogue. On the small screen, expect her to take on the role of the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin, in the Disney+ series American Born Chinese.
Michelle has been well-recognised locally for her work in international film
Locally, she was recognised for her contributions to cinema by the State of Perak in 2001 and was conferred with the Darjah Datuk Paduka Mahkota Perak, award which carries the title of Dato‘, by His Majesty Sultan Azlan Shah. She would later receive the Darjah Seri Paduka Mahkota Perak award in 2012, which carried the title of Dato’ Seri.
And in 2013, she was awarded the Panglima Setia Mahkota (PSM), which carries the title of Tan Sri. She currently resides in Geneva, Switzerland, with her fiancé, former French rally driver and racing executive Jean Todt.
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