Kieu Chinh

A Vietnamese character actress who got her start in film when Joseph L. Mankiewicz came to Saigon for location footage for his offbeat "The Quiet American" (1958), Kieu Chinh soon became one of South Vietnam's best-known personalities, making over 40 films and hosting her own popular TV talk show. In the mid-1960s she also appeared in several American productions including "A Yank in Vietnam" (1964) and "Operation C.I.A." (1965), the latter opposite Burt Reynolds. Having lost a father and a brother in conflicts with the French in the early 50s, Kieu Chinh quickly left for the US when the North Vietnamese invaded in 1975.

TV-movies including "The Children of An Lac" (1980), "The Letter" (1982) and "The Girl Who Spelled Freedom" (1986) have kept her busiest, but feature films offered her roles in "Hamburger Hill" (1987) and "Gleaming the Cube" (1988). Wayne Wang's "The Joy Luck Club" (1993) offered Kieu Chinh one of her best parts to date as a mother reaching out to her daughter over games of mah-jongg.