Anna May Wong acted along side some of Hollywood's heavy-hitters during the 20s and 30s (think Douglas Fairbanks, Laurence Olivier, Marlene Dietrich), received great acclaim for her onscreen performances, she even has a star on the Walk of Fame and yet she remains fairly unknown today.
It seems that, despite the fantastic reviews and the accolade, Hollywood was reluctant to give her any honest to goodness starring roles. Even occasionally losing out on Asian roles to her white American contemporaries, her career was clearly a struggle. None the less, she was most definitely a pioneer in her field; the first Chinese American film star and the first Asian American to achieve international stardom at the time. Anna May seems to have taken her work very seriously. For example, when asked if she would ever marry she said:
"No, I am wedded to my art."
She continued to act here and there until the early 1960s but died at only 56 years old. I found out about Anna a while back and had been meaning to do a post on her for months and months but sort of forgot about her. This seems to be a common theme in her world. For more about her visit the
anna may wong society.
Below are my favorite images of Anna May (photo-cartoons)
great, aren't they?
(images from flickr)
9 comments:
She's beautiful and sounds wonderful. I want to hunt down some of her films now.
WOW! She was a beauty! I love those cartoon pictures, amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Darling I gave you a blog award!
what a cool chick.
In Shanghai Express she's just as glamorous as Dietrich (which is saying a lot!)!
ha ha, yes...coming from you that is saying a lot!!
really great!
WOW! She was a beauty! I love those cartoon pictures, amazing! Thanks for sharing!
what a cool chick.
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