Maggie Cheung

5/5

Biography

Born: September 20, 1964, Hong Kong

  • Real name
  • Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk
  • Primary profession
  • Actress·soundtrack
  • Nationality
  • China
  • Gender
  • Female
  • Birth date
  • 20 September 1964
  • Place of birth
  • Hong Kong
  • Spouses
  • Olivier Assayas
  • Education
  • St Paul's Girls' School

Music

Movies

TV

Books

Awards

Trivia

Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival 1997.

First runner-up and Miss Photogenic in Miss Hong Kong and a semi-finalist in Miss World.

Guest model of Herms during Paris Fashion Week in March 1998.

Spokesperson of LUX shampoo in mid-late 1990s in Greater China.

Ruan Lingyu was turning point in her career. Before this film was made, she was only offered the roles of beautiful Asian women in Western films.

Olivier Assayas wrote the characters of Maggie Cheung (in Irma Vep ) and Emily Wang (in Clean ) specifically with her in mind.

The first Chinese actress ever to win the Best Actress award at the Berlin International Film Festival (1992 - for Ruan Lingyu ) and Cannes Film Festival (2004 - for Clean ).

Her parents are Shanghainese. While she cannot speak the dialect, she understands it.

In Hong Kong, she has been handed every role she has played since she was 18 without an audition.

Wanted to be a hairdresser as a child.

Was offered a role in X2 but turned it down because "If I start making films like that, they wont be proud. Id feel like I was cheating. And I dont want half the world, we have 1.3 billion people in China, to know Im cheating. That matters to me. I have more pride than that."

Learned French for her role in Augustin, roi du kung-fu .

Grew up in Bromley, Kent, when she lived in the UK.

Signed her divorce paper with Olivier Assayas on the set of Clean which was directed by her ex-husband.

She and Tony Chiu-Wai Leung made 7 movies together: 2046 , Ah fei zing zyun , Dung che sai duk , Faa yeung nin wa , Hao men ye yan , Se diu ying hung ji dung sing sai jau , and Ying xiong . They also starred together in a short-lived TV-series: "San jaat si hing" .

Acted in 6 movies with Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia, whom she considered her idol and an actress she respected.

She was a finalist to star in Memoirs of a Geisha .

Declined lead role in Memoirs of a Geisha because of racial sensitivity between the Japanese and the Chinese, due to WWII.

Although an icon of Asian cinema, she is actually a European with extended residence in Hong Kong.

Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1999.

Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.

Filmed a role in Inglourious Basterds but all of her scenes were deleted from the final cut.

Is fluent in English, French and Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin, and understands Shanghainese).

Ex-daughter-in-law of Jacques Rmy.

Ex-sister-in-law of Michka Assayas.

In April 2010 Cheung was appointed as UNICEFs Ambassador to China.

In July 2011 Cheung was awarded the degree Doctor honoris causa at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Member of the jury at Marrakech International Film Festival 2010.

Resides in Beijing, China.

(August 2005) Upper East Side, New York

Quotes

It was heaven. We were in Los Angeles. And we could go anywhere. No one,had any idea who I was.

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