Biography

A Star Is Born

In the summer of 1983, Miss Yeoh returned home for vacation to find that her mother had entered her in the national beauty contest (her mother had sent in photos to the contest officials). What's more, by the time she'd returned to Malaysia, she'd made it past the qualifying rounds. Not wanting to disappoint her mother, she went ahead with the competition and much to her surprise, was crowned Miss Malaysia at the age of 21.

And Into This World
1962: Year of the Tiger
In Europe, the Orient Express goes out of service in May after nearly 79 years in operation between Paris and Istanbul, a victim of the airplane which has cut travel time between the cities to 2 hours.
John F. Enders produces the first measles vaccine.
ABC begins color telecasts for 3 and 1/2 hours per week beginning in September. 68% of NBC prime evening is in color but CBS remains in black and white.
In the bookstore: One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, King Rat by James Clavell, A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov.
Poloroid inroduces color film that takes just 60 seconds to develop!
Films include: Lawrence of Arabia, Akira Kuroswa's Yojimbo, Blake Edwards' The Days of Wine and Roses, John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate, To Kill A Mockingbird with Gregory Peck, Betty Daves and Joan Crawford in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane.

True to her word, the self-confessed tomboy served out her reign as Miss Malaysia, representing her country (she likened it to being a goodwill ambassador). Along the way, she also earned the title of Miss Moomba in Australia.

Near the end of her term, she was introduced to Hong Kong businessman Dickson Poon who, at the time, was looking for a fresh face to star in a watch commercial with action star Jackie Chan. She accepted their offer and was invited to Hong Kong for the shoot. She also appeared in another spot with Chow Yun-Fat (this, before his introduction to the silver screen in the John Woo movies). The success of the commercials led to a contract offer from Poon who had newly founded D&B films (the D of his name, the B from his partner, Sammo Hung Kam Bo).

Her first movie role was a very unlike those we're used to seeing her in. She played the "typical" girl role in the Sammo Hung comedy The Owl Vs Dumbo (for those unfamiliar, the typical girl role in action movies features a pretty yet mostly helpless woman who's usually the girlfriend of the hero and her primary purposes in the film are to look pretty and to be captured thus giving the hero a reason to fight).

Not to be discouraged though, her part in Owl gave her a close up view of how the Hong Kong action film genre worked. Given her background and training, she quickly came to the conclusion that she could perform the same moves as the men. Offered a choice by D&B Films, she chose action.

But while the scenes we see in the movies may APPEAR simple, graceful and yet so powerful, it takes many years of training and study to perfect them. China's biggest action stars had, at the time, spent most of their lives devoted to the physical training required. And so that is where Miss Yeoh began as well, undergoing intensive physical training, 10 to 12 hours per day. She studied no particular style or form, but instead learned individual moves common to most styles and in 1985 she participated in her first on screen fight: a cameo role as a Judo instructor in Hung and Chan's Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars.

It was her second action role that was her breakout. She was paired, in 1985, with American sensation Cynthia Rothrock in the film Yes, Madam. Here, as a fearless policewoman, she entered the world of stunts in dramatic fashion: flipping backwards over a railing, smashing her head through glass while throwing two thugs off the balcony. Her willingness to do such stunts herself catapulted her into the male-dominated world of action film and into film history.

Her success in Yes, Madam was followed by another police role in the contemporary action film Royal Warriors (1986). Next came her third action thriller, Magnificent Warriors (1986). During its filming, she ruptured an artery in her leg and the serious nature of it forced her to take a break. At this point, she was now engaged to Dickson Poon who gave her a non-action role in the film Easy Money (1987), her final film for D&B.

In February of 1988, Miss Yeoh married Dickson Poon in an elaborate wedding. The match appeared perfect: former beauty queen turned actress marries billionaire film producer. At Poon's insistence, Yeoh retired from acting and entered the Hong Kong fashion scene, a fixture in boutiques and on the society pages. The marriage lasted a little more than three years and while many rumors surround the reason for the breakup, the details were never shared with the public. Soon after, Poon dissolved his film company.

One may easily surmise that the end of the marriage wasn't nearly as much of a surprise as the fact that it lasted 3 years. Clearly, given her career to date, Miss Yeoh was not the type to play trophy wife to Poon or anyone for that matter. Perhaps if he'd realized that things may have turned out different.

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