Joan Chen
Joan Chen (Chinese陈冲, Pinyin Chén Chong, born April 26, 1961 in Shanghai, People's Republic of China) is a Chinese- American actress and director.
She was born the daughter of a doctor couple in Shanghai and educated there at the Film Academy and the Institute of Foreign Languages . At the age of seven, she and her older brother were separated by the state for several years by their parents. At fourteen, she played her first film role. At the age of eighteen, she was one of the most popular Chinese actresses and won an award as best actress for her role in the film Xiao hua (Eng. The little flower ). In 1981, she followed her parents to the United States after New York City, where they worked in a hospital, and studied pre- med ( course of study that prepared for the subsequent medical degree) at New York University. They then decided not to study medicine, and initially studied instead acting at the State University of New York at New Paltz, then theater and film directing at the California State University, Northridge.
After several small roles in film and television in 1986, she played her first major Hollywood role in Tai Pan, the adaptation of the novel by James Clavell. The film was not successful, but helped her 1987 female lead, the Empress Wan Jung in Bernardo Bertolucci's film The Last Emperor ( Original title: The Last Emperor ). 1990-1991, she played the role of widowed sawmill owner Josie Packard in David Lynch's television series Twin Peaks.
These roles represent the high point of her career dar. Since then, she played only minor roles in both Chinese films as well as in Hollywood films, often called Bösewichtin. In 1998, she directed the Chinese-language film shot in China Tian yu (天 浴, Tian Yu; engl title: . Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl), which won several awards of smaller film festivals. In 2000, she again led director, this time with the American film Autumn in New York (Original Title: Autumn in New York) starring Richard Gere and Winona Ryder.
Joan Chen is a U.S. citizen since 1989. Since 1992 she has been married to his second marriage with the doctor Peter Hui, with whom she two daughters ( born 1998 and 2002). She now lives in San Francisco.