Michelle Yeoh is a Malaysian actress best known for her martial-arts-infused roles in films like ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once,’ ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Dies.’
Who is Michelle Yeoh
Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh was born 6 August 1962 in Ipoh, Malaysia. She is credited as ‘Michelle Khan’ in her early Hong Kong films. After starring in a series of Hong Kong action films, Yeoh rose to fame in the 1990s. She performed her own stunts, such as Yes, Madam (1985), Police Story 3: Supercop (1992), and Holy Weapon (1993). Yeoh is well known internationally for her roles in Ang Lee’s martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon of 2000 and the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.
Yeoh is famed for her role in the Star Trek franchise on television. She starred as Philippa Georgiou in the series from 2017 to 2020. An untitled spin-off series set to star Yeoh was announced in 2019.
Yeoh’s other works include Kung Fu Panda 2, Memoirs of a Geisha, and The Lady, where she starred as Aung San Suu Kyi. She appeared in the American romantic comedy-drama film Crazy Rich Asians in 2018. In 2021, she starred as Ying Nan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. She appeared in the science-fiction film Everything Everywhere All at Once in 2022.
Rotten Tomatoes, the film review-aggregation website ranked Michelle Yeoh as the greatest action heroine of all time in 2008. She was chosen by People in 1997 as one of the “50 Most BEautiful People in the World.” The same magazine listed Yeoh in 2009 as one of “35 All-Time Screen Beauties.” Time named her one of the world’s 100 most influential people on its annual listicle in 2022.
Early Life and Education
Michelle Yeoh is the daughter of Janet Yeoh, a housewife, and Yeoh Kian Teik, a lawyer. Yeoh enjoyed an active upbringing that nurtured her competitive instincts. She loved to dance from an early age. Yeoh began ballet at the age of four. As a primary student, Yeoh attended Main Convent Ipoh, an all-girls secondary school in Ipoh. She moved with her parents to the United Kingdom at the age of 15, where she was enrolled in a boarding school.
Majoring in ballet, Yeoh later studied at the UK’s Royal Academy of Dance in London, though she got a spinal injury that deterred her from becoming a professional ballet dancer. Therefore, Yeoh concentrated on choreography and other arts, and later received a BA degree in creative arts with a minor in drama.
Career
Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia World contest in 1983 at the age of 20. She became Malaysia’s representative at the Miss World 1983 pageant in London. Yeoh won another pair of beauty pageants; “Miss Moomba” and “Queen of the Pacific,” later that year. Since then, she appeared in a television commercial with Jackie Chan. That’s where her luck began because she caught the attention of an emerging Hong Kong film production company, D&B films.
Throughout her film career, Yeoh performed most of her own stunts. In 1985, Yeoh was given a main role in the Yes, Madam film. She was well known as Michelle Khan in these earlier films, an alias chosen by D&B Films to market the movie to international and western audiences. In 1997, Michelle changed her stage name back to the former when she began her Hollywood career with Tomorrow Never Dies.
In 2000, Yeoh starred as Yu Shu Lien in the Chinese language martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Before learning Cantonese, Yeoh grew up speaking English and Malay. She learned a few Mandarin lines for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon phonetically, contributing to the international success of the movie.
Yeoh produced her first English film, The Touch, in 2002, through her own production company known as Mythical Films. She starred in the film adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha in 2005 as Mameha. Later in 2008, along with Brendah Fraser and Jet Li, Yeoh starred in the fantasy action film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Yeoh became Guerlain skincare ambassador in October 2011. Her main purpose was to strengthen the French cosmetics company’s relationship with Asia. In addition to action films, Yeoh is also famous for playing nationalists in two biopics. She portrayed Soong Ai-ling in the award-winning The Soong Sisters in 1997 and played Aung San Suu Kyi in Luc Besson’s The Lady in 2011.
In 2018, Yeoh starred as family matriarch Eleanor Young in Jon M. Chu’s Crazy Rich Asians. In 2019, she appeared along with Henry Golding and Emilia Clarke in “Last Christmas” as the Christmas themed-store owner “Santa.” The film was released on 8 November 2019.
Yeoh played in the science fiction black comedy film “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” in 2022. The film was released in March to near-universal acclaim. She is set to appear in the upcoming Disney+ series American Born Chinese, based on the book of the same name by Gene Luen Yang.
Marriage and Relationships
Yeoh was married to Dickson Poon, a Hong Kong entrepreneur and owner of businesses such as Charles Jourdan and Harvey Nichols, from 1988 to 1992. She became engaged to Alan Heldman, an American Cardiologist in 1998. Since 2004, Yeoh has been in a relationship with Jean Todt, a Ferrari racing executive and CEO of Scuderia Ferrari and later the president of the FIA. She confirmed her engagement to Todt in July 2008 during an interview with Craig Ferguson on CBS’s The Late Late Show.