The First Chinese Woman to Win an Oscar

Despite strides toward representation in the film industry, Asian American actors and actresses are still fighting for recognition. Yeoh’s Oscar win for Everything Everywhere All at Once, in which she plays a laundromat owner who must connect with versions of herself from parallel universes, is an important milestone.

But it wouldn’t have happened without many factors falling into place. We take a look at some of those forces.

Michelle Yeoh

Yeoh has been a mainstay of Hong Kong cinema for decades, but it wasn’t until 2023 that she became the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for her role in a lead performance. The award came for her turn in the sci-fi surreal comedy Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. The movie melded science fiction, absurd comedy, and family drama. Yeoh’s character, Evelyn Wang, traversed the multiverse as she connected with various versions of herself in order to avert a cataclysmic disaster.

Born in Malaysia, Yeoh trained as a dancer before injuries derailed her plans and she turned to acting. She established herself as an action star in the ’90s with roles in films like Stanley Tong’s Police Story 3: Supercop, which paired her with Jackie Chan. Her stunts wowed audiences and highlighted her grace, precision, and fearlessness. In one famous sequence, Yeoh hung from the back of a car and was thrown onto the hood of another moving vehicle to avoid being hit by a bus.

In the 2000s, Yeoh exploded into Hollywood fame with a series of critically acclaimed blockbusters, including James Bond’s Tomorrow Never Dies and Ang Lee’s martial arts drama Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She proved that she had dramatic chops, as well, with her turn as the conflicted warrior Yu Shu Lien in the film. The role required Yeoh to learn lines in a difficult older form of Cantonese and also withstand some serious physical trauma on set, such as a torn knee ligament that forced her off the set for three months.

Yeoh has been involved in several conservation and humanitarian initiatives, including serving as a WildAid ambassador for endangered animals. She has also donated her time to AIDS-related organizations and road safety campaigns. She has even served as an adviser for the UN Women’s Empowerment Fund.

Yeoh’s Oscar win is an especially significant milestone for Asian American actors, who have struggled to break into the industry and find high-profile roles. It has also sparked discussions about the representation of Asian Americans in film and television.

Janet Gaynor

Janet Gaynor was born Laura Augusta Gainor in 1906, and she was raised by her father who worked as a paperhanger and painter for the theater. He taught her how to dance and act, so she began acting in school plays. She was a natural on the screen and was quickly spotted by Hollywood producers. She started out as an extra in silent pictures and eventually signed a long-term contract with Fox Film Corporation. She soon became a starring actress and won several awards for her performances, including the first Oscar for best actress. This was for her roles in 7th Heaven, Sunrise and Street Angel.

Her performances in these films were powerful and heart-warming, and she was a top box office star. She was also paired with her co-star Charles Farrell, and the two became one of the most popular couples in Hollywood. The pair kept their relationship off-screen and secret, but many believed they were a real-life couple.

By 1934, Gaynor was the top box office star in Hollywood, and she was still going strong even with the advent of sound. Her performances in sound films were just as good, and she continued to be paired with Farrell. The two starred together in 11 films. By this time, however, their romance was beginning to wane and the pair was not getting along well.

The two finally broke up in 1938, and Gaynor made only a few more films before retiring in 1940. She was injured in a car accident that year, which contributed to her death two years later.

Despite the controversies surrounding her, Janet Gaynor was one of the most influential and talented actors of the silent and early sound eras. She was a wonderful actress and had a beautiful smile that melted hearts everywhere she went. She was also a great supporter of the arts and had many friends in the industry, which she kept close to her throughout her life. Her final performance in On Golden Pond earned her a twelfth Oscar nomination and fourth win. She was a true icon and will be missed by movie fans all over the world.

Luise Rainer

Rainer, whose acting was as powerful and eloquent as her beauty, won her first Oscar for playing Florenz Ziegfeld’s discarded wife Anna in The Great Ziegfeld. Her second came for her portrayal of a virtuous Chinese peasant farmwife in the film version of Pearl S Buck’s The Good Earth. At that time, it was unprecedented for a film actress to win back-to-back Oscars. After a few years of playing leading stage roles in Austria and Germany, and appearing in some German-language films, Rainer was discovered by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talent scouts and signed to a three-year contract in Hollywood. Many believed that she had the potential to become a major star, similar to Greta Garbo.

While she worked to perfect her craft, she began to feel trapped by the business. She resented being molded by her studio bosses and was unhappy with the types of films that were being offered to her. She broke her contract with MGM in 1938 over what she perceived to be a lack of artistic freedom.

After leaving the film industry, Rainer became a prominent figure in the Popular Front movement of leftist political activism that rose to prominence in Los Angeles during the 1930s. She was a member of the group along with actor Paul Muni, journalist Dorothy Parker, playwright Clifford Odets and others. In addition to her activism, she also pursued a career in the arts, appearing in a number of theatre productions and guest starring on TV shows.

In her later life, Rainer moved to England and made occasional appearances in films, including a small role in the 1998 adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Gambler. She retired from acting at age 86 and died in 2009 in London at the age of 100.

Despite her rocky relationship with the film business, Rainer had a full life and was friends with some of the most famous minds of the 20th century. Thomas Mann was a frequent visitor to her house, and Arturo Toscanini often gave her violin lessons. She was also a dedicated humanitarian who helped Hemingway rescue children from the Spanish Civil War and Brecht flee to America in wartime Europe.

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman, who was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel, is a two-time Oscar winner and one of the few women to win an award for both directing and acting. Her parents, Avner Hershlag, an Israeli fertility doctor and Shelley Stevens, a professional artist from Ohio, gave her a strong upbringing that focused on education and travel.

She made her big-screen debut in the 1994 film Leon: The Professional, and has since starred in films such as Heat, Beautiful Girls, and Mars Attacks!. She also won critical acclaim for her role as Anne Frank in the 1997 Broadway adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank, which she cried during during rehearsals, saying it was so personal to her family who lost many relatives in the Holocaust.

Her next major role was in Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 ballet drama Black Swan, for which she reportedly lost 20 pounds and underwent rigorous dance training to prepare for the role. She received widespread acclaim for her performance and won an Academy Award and Golden Globe for it.

In addition to her work on the screen, Portman is a noted advocate for Israel and has spoken out about anti-Semitism in the United States. She has a long list of awards and nominations for her acclaimed performances and was named the best actress at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

The Oscars have seen some strides in diversity, especially with directors. Ang Lee became the first director of Asian descent to win an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain in 2006, and won again for Life of Pi seven years later. Bong Joon-Ho won in 2020 for Parasite, and Chloe Zhao won for Nomadland in 2021. The ceremony also honored Troy Kotsur, the first deaf actor to receive a best supporting actor nomination for his performance in the film CODA.

Despite this, the number of Asian actors winning an Oscar remains low. This is especially true for Asian-American actresses, who have struggled to achieve recognition in Hollywood. Nevertheless, some notable names have won an Oscar, including Michelle Yeoh and Janet Gaynor.