Tsai Chin


Actor

About

Birth Place
Shanghai, CN

Biography

Daughter of a famous actor long with the Peking Opera, Tsai Chin was educated at England's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and soon thereafter played the title role in the West End production of "The World of Suzie Wong." She also made an auspicious film debut as Ingrid Bergman's adopted daughter in the touching biopic, "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" (1958). Through the 1960s, she was ca...

Biography

Daughter of a famous actor long with the Peking Opera, Tsai Chin was educated at England's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and soon thereafter played the title role in the West End production of "The World of Suzie Wong." She also made an auspicious film debut as Ingrid Bergman's adopted daughter in the touching biopic, "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" (1958). Through the 1960s, she was cast in decorative, small roles in films ranging from "Blow Up" (1966) to "You Only Live Twice" (1967), achieving her greatest recognition for the five films she made with Christopher Lee in which she played the villainous and inscrutable daughter of his equally treacherous Fu Manchu, beginning with 1965's "The Face of Fu Manchu." Tsai Chin did better onstage during the 70s and 80s and even returned to her native land to considerable acclaim when she taught and directed at Beijing's Central Academy of Dramatic Art. She returned to feature films after a long absence to play one of four mothers who bond with their daughters over mah-jongg in Wayne Wang's "The Joy Luck Club" (1993).

Life Events

1958

Played first important feature film role in "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness"

1959

Starred in the West End stage production of "The World of Suzie Wong"

1965

Played Lin Tang, villainous daughter of the equally treacherous Fu Manchu, in the first of five films opposite Christopher Lee, "The Face of Fu Manchu"

1980

Invited by China's Minister of Culture to teach acting for a semester at the Central Academy of Dramatic Art in Beijing; finished up her stay directing a well-received production of "The Tempest"; also directed "The Seagull" and "Twelfth Night" for the Hong Kong Repertory Theater 9date approximate)

Family

Zhou Xinfang
Father
Circus performer. Polish.
Zhou Xinfang
Father
Actor. Noted performer at the Peking Opera.

Bibliography