Anna May Wong

ANNA MAY WONG d1961. American actress, the first Chinese-American movie-star and the first Asian-American to become an International star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage and radio. Her best known films include ; The Toll Of The Sea (1922) / The Thief Of Bagdad (1924) which made her a fashion-icon / Piccadilly (1929) / Daughter Of The Dragon (1931) and Shanghai Express (1932) with Marlene Dietrich. She paid less attention to her film career during WW2, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. She returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong.  She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died of a heart attack aged just 56 in 1961.