Joan Chen

She is a screenwriter, producer, director, and an actress. She is famous for her roles in Saving Face, Red Rose, and Twin Peaks. Her performance in 1979’s Chinese movie named Xiao Hua (The Little Flower) helped her in winning China’s Best Actress Award. Born in Shanghai, she was educated at the Shanghai Film Academy and Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages. Both her parents were doctors. She has an older brother named Chase. She was spotted by Jiang Qing, the wife of leader Mao Zedong. At the age of fourteen, she was selected for the by the Shanghai Film Studio for the Actor’s training program. Veteran director Xie Jin, who picked her to play the lead role in his film Xiao Hua, which led her to stardom in China. In China, she received success in her teenage years. She was getting appreciations from media in the form of “the Elizabeth Taylor of China“. At the age of twenty, she moved to the United States for further studies. First, she attended the State University of New York then moved to California State University to study filmmaking. Her debut story in Hollywood is quite interesting as legendary Hollywood producer Dino De Laurentiis saw her in a parking lot of a studio and instantly offered her a role in his next movie ‘Tai-Pan.’ The movie didn’t do well in terms of money, but it helped her to grab another role in 1987’s critically acclaimed ‘The Last Emperor’. She played an ill-fated Empress in this cult classic.

This role and her role of Josie Packard in the TV series ‘Twin Peaks’ are her best-known performances to date. She played a double role in ‘’Temptation of a Monk” directed by Clara Law. In one of her characters, she played a seductive role of a Princess of Tang dynasty in contrast with a dangerous temptress. After completing the Steven Seagal’s action packed film named ‘On Deadly Ground’, she moved back to Shanghai to act in ‘Red Rose, White Rose’ also starring Winston Chao Winston, born on 19th June 1960 is an actor. Winst >> Read More... . Tired of being cast as a beauty doll in almost every movie, she switched to directing. In 1998, her debut movie as a director named ‘Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl’ was very much appreciated by the critics. In 2000, she directed ‘Autumn in New York’ starring Richard Gere Richard Gere is an American actor, known for his o >> Read More... . She took a break from directing movies due to commitments prior towards her family. In her personal life, she has been married twice. She was married to Jimmy Lau, who was an actor too, from 1985 to 1990. After divorce with Jimmy, she got married to Peter Hui, a cardiologist by profession on January 18, 1992. Now, the couple is proud parents of two daughters namely Angela Frances and Wen Shan Hui. She has always supported humanity healthcare causes. She appeared in Banyan tree project to stop HIV-AIDS related stigma. She has always supported to combat violence against women and children.