Michelle Yeoh

Name: Michelle Yeoh
Chinese Name: 楊紫瓊
Profession: Actress
Country: Malaysia, Hong Kong
Birthday: 06 August 1962
Height: 163cm
Weight: 48kg

Dato’ Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng (Chinese: 楊紫瓊; pinyin: Yáng Zi qióng; born August 6, 1962) is a Hong Kong-based actress and dancer, sometimes billed as “Michelle Khan”. Yeoh is a Chinese Malaysian born in Ipoh, Malaysia. Yeoh was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1997.

Yeoh began ballet dancing at the age of four. Inspired by the movie, Fame (1980), she enrolled in England’s Royal Academy of Dance, where she eventually earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in dancing. She also excelled in athletic events. During her teenage years, Yeoh enjoyed playing squash and was also a national competitor in swimming and diving. Yeoh was quite ambitious and was determined to gain a master’s in dancing. While she was living in England, Yeoh explored contemporary, jazz and ballet dancing. Michelle’s dream of being a prima ballerina was abruptly cut short by a spinal injury which she suffered during a ballet practicing session at her college years. The doctor she consulted announced that a rotated disk in her spine would not be able to stand the daily intensive ballet workout. Michelle consequently had to switch her focus away from dance to choreography and other arts. Sadly, Michelle never did get a chance to perform ballet professionally on stage. Instead, she alternately set her sights on running her own school to teach ballet.

In 1983, Yeoh returned to her home country, Malaysia. It was at the age of 21 when Yeoh became the winner of the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant in 1983. She was also Malaysia’s representative at the 1983 Miss World pageant in London. From there, she appeared in a television commercial with Jackie Chan which caught the attention of a fledgling film production company called D&B Films.

Yeoh’s career in Hong Kong started in modeling, where she appeared in a series of commercials for Charles Jourdan, opposite action movie heroes Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat. The Charles Jourdan brand was handled by D&B Group in Hong Kong, and this is how Yeoh met her future husband, Dickson Poon. In 1988, she retired after marrying prominent Hong Kong tycoon, Dickson Poon of D&B Films. Three years later, the couple divorced, and Yeoh returned to acting in 1992. Her first movie after the comeback was Police Story 3, which was partly shot in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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