Anna May Wong Biography

Anna May Wong was an American actress whose career spanned silent film, sound film, television, stage, and radio. She became infatuated with films and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first films made in color, and in Douglas Fairbanks’ The Thief of Bagdad (1924). In the 1920s and 1930s, Wong was acclaimed as one of the top fashion icons. She starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929) while she was in Europe. She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work. She was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931), Java Head (1934), Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg’s Shanghai Express (1932).

Later, she spent her time touring China, visiting her family’s ancestral village, studying Chinese culture, and documenting the experience on film at a time when prominent female directors in Hollywood were few. In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese and Chinese Americans in a positive light. She dies on 3rd February 1961, at the age of 56, from a heart attack which is her death cause. 

Actress Anna May Wong Dies At 56

On February 3, 1961, Anna May Wong took her last breath. She dies at 56. Her death cause was a heart attack. Prior to her death, she slept at home in Santa Monica, two days after her final screen performance on television’s The Barbara Stanwyck Show in an episode entitled “Dragon by the Tail”. (Wong had appeared in another story in the same series the previous year.) Her cremated remains were interred in her mother’s grave at Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles. The headstone is marked with her mother’s Anglicized name on top, the Chinese names of Anna May (on the right), and her sister Mary (on the left) along the sides. 

Anna May Wong Famous For

• Anna May Won is an American actress, considered the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain international recognition.
• She is the first Asian American to appear on US currency.

Who were Anna May Wong’s Parents?

Anna May Wong was born with the birth name of Wong Liu-tsong on 3rd January 1905. She is from Flower Street in Los Angeles, one block north of Chinatown, in an integrated community of Chinese, Irish, German and Japanese residents. She held American-Chinese nationality and her ethnicity was Mixed. For the last time, she celebrated her 56th birthday. She was the second of seven children born to Wong Sam-sing, owner of the Sam Kee Laundry, and his second wife Lee Gon-toy.

Her parents were second-generation Chinese Americans; her maternal and paternal grandparents had resided in the U.S. since at least 1855. Her paternal grandfather, A Wong Wong, was a merchant who owned two stores in Michigan Bluffs, a gold-mining area in Placer County. Her dad spent his youth traveling between the U.S. and China, where he married his first wife and fathered a son in 1890. He returned to the U.S. in the late 1890s and in 1901, while continuing to support his family in China, he married a second wife, Anna May’s mother.

Her older sister Lew-ying (Lulu) was born in late 1902, and Anna May in 1905, followed by five more children. In 1949, her father died in Los Angeles at the age of 91. By the age of 11, Wong had come up with her stage name Anna May Wong, formed by joining both her English and family names. She dropped out of Los Angeles High School in 1921 to pursue a full-time acting career.

Anna May Wong Career Timeline (Acting)

• Initially, she worked at Hollywood’s Ville de Paris department store when Metro Pictures needed 300 female extras to appear in Alla Nazimova’s film “The Red Lantern” (1919). One of her friends helped her land an uncredited role as an extra carrying a lantern.
• In 1921, Wong received her first screen credit for “Bits of Life”.
• At the age of 17, she played her first leading role, in the early Metro two-color Technicolor movie “The Toll of the Sea”. 
• At the age of 19, she was cast in a supporting role as a scheming Mongol slave in the 1924 Douglas Fairbanks picture “The Thief of Bagdad”.
• Next, she appeared in “Drifting” and portrayed an Eskimo in “The Alaskan.”
• She performed the part of Princess Tiger Lily in “Peter Pan”.
• After that, she was seen in “Forty Winks” which was followed by The Silk Bouquet, Old San Francisco, Mr. Wu, and The Crimson City.
• She left Hollywood in 1928 for Europe and appeared in notable films such as Schmutziges Geld (aka Song and Show Life, 1928) and Großstadtschmetterling (Pavement Butterfly). 
• London producer Basil Dean brought the play “A Circle of Chalk” for her to appear in with the young Laurence Olivier, her first stage performance in the United Kingdom.
• She made her last silent film, “Piccadilly”, in 1929. 
• Her first talkie was The Flame of Love (1930). 
• She then returned to Hollywood and appeared in the films “Dangerous to Know”, “Daughter of the Dragon”, “Shanghai Express”, “The Son-Daughter”, and “The Bitter Tea of General Yen”.
• She again returned to Britain and appeared in Java Head (1934), and The Good Earth (1937), 
• She announced plans for a year-long tour of China, to visit her father and his family in Taishan.
• During her travels in China, Wong continued to be strongly criticized by the Nationalist government and the film community. 
• To complete her contract with Paramount Pictures, Wong made a string of B movies in the late 1930s. 
• She was then seen in Daughter of Shanghai (1937) and King of Chinatown (1939).
• Likewise, she performed on the radio several times, including a 1939 role as “Peony” in Pearl Buck’s The Patriot on Orson Welles’ The Campbell Playhouse.
• Between 1939 and 1942, she made few films, instead engaging in events and appearances in support of the Chinese struggle against Japan.
• Next, she starred in Bombs over Burma (1942) and Lady from Chungking (1942). 
• After a six-year absence, Wong returned to film the same year with a small role in a B movie called “Impact” in 1949.
• She starred in a detective series that was written specifically for her, the DuMont Television Network series “The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong” from 27th August to 21st November. 
• She also did guest spots on television series such as Adventures in Paradise, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.
• In 1960, Wong returned to film in “Portrait in Black”.
• She was scheduled to play the role of Madame Liang in the film production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Flower Drum Song”, but was unable to take the role due to her health issues.

Who was Anna May Wong married to?

Anna May Wong was never married during her lifetime. There were rumors that she was romantically involved with Dietrich and white men. She lived single till her death. Her sexual orientation was straight. 

How much was Anna May Wong’s Net Worth?

Anna May Wong was a talented and successful actress who made a huge fortune from her career as an actress. Her net worth is estimated to have $25 Million at the time of her death. Her main source of wealth was the entertainment industry. She had even invested in real estate and owned a number of properties in Hollywood. She converted her home on San Vicente Boulevard in Santa Monica into four apartments that she called “Moongate Apartments”. She served as the apartment house manager from the late 1940s until 1956 when she moved in with her brother Richard on 21st Place in Santa Monica. She was living a lavish lifestyle prior to her death. 

How tall was Anna May Wong?

Anna May Wong was a beautiful actress with a height of 1.69 m. Her body weight consists of 54 Kg. She had brown eyes with black hair color. She had fair skin color. Her body type was slim.