Oscar Profile #187: Nancy Kwan

Born May 19, 1939 in Hong Kong to Cambridge educated Chinese architect Kwan Wing Hong and his English wife, Marquita Scott, Nancy (AKA Ka Shen) Kwan is an internationally celebrated Eurasian actress and producer.

Two years after her birth, as World War II escalated, Kwan’s parents divorced and her mother returned to England. In fear of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, Kwan’s father, disguised as a coolie, escaped to China at Christmas time, 1941 with Kwan and her older brother hidden in baskets. They remained in exile in China for the remainder of the war where her father helped downed American airmen find refuge. Upon returning to Hong Kong, they lived in a spacious, contemporary home designed by her father.

Kwan’s mother traveled to New York where she married met and married an American. Her father remained in Hong Kong, married a Chinese woman and gave Kwan and her brother five step-brothers and sisters. Kwan was educated at Hong Kong’s Maryknoll Catholic Convent School from the age of 6 to 13. She then traveled to England where she was enrolled in a boarding school with her brother. Upon graduation she attended the Royal Ballet School and eventually returned to Hong Kong where she started her own ballet school.

Seeing an ad for auditions for The World of Suzie Wong in a Hong Kong newspaper. Kwan applied and was advised by producer Ray Stark to travel to the U.S. for further auditions, which she did. She became understudy to France Nuyen in the touring version of the play and replaced Nuyen for the screen version which made her an international star.

Meeting producer Ross Hunter at a party, he offered her the lead in the screen version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song and the next day found herself at work on her second film. Freckle-faced Kwan’s features were enhanced via makeup for both films to make her appear more Chinese than she actually looks. She is one of the few Asian actresses who can also successfully play Caucasians and has done so from time to time throughout her career.

While traveling in Europe for location work on her third film, The Main Attraction, Kwan, who previously dated Maximilian Schell, met and married Austrian hotelier Peter Pock in 1962 and gave birth to her only child, Bernhard (Bernie) Pock on March 28, 1963. The marriage ended in 1968. Kwan married producer David Giler (Aliens) in 1970 whom she divorced in 1972. Almost immediately after that, Kwan and her son moved to Hong Kong for a year to be with her dying father, but remained there for seven years. She met Austrian born actor-producer-director Norbert Meisel in 1977, married him in 1978 and returned to the U.S. with Meisel and her teenage son in 1979.

Kwan kept busy through all of her travels, but none of the films she made during this period approached the success of her first two. Her “blue-eyed, blond Chinese son” as she called him became a stunt man, stunt coordinator, actor and director, working on such films as Back to the Future; Die Hard; The War at Home and Thinner, amassing more than seventy credits in just twelve years.

Against Kwan’s advice her son moved in with his African born girlfriend with a questionable past in 1991 and she and her husband did not hear from him for some time. Eventually her son told her that he married the woman who now had full blown AIDS and that he himself was now HIV positive. Heartbroken Kwan cared for her terminally ill daughter-in-law until her death and eventually did the same for her son who died in 1996 at the age of 33.

Still considered a major star, Kwan has turned to film production and occasional stage appearances that keep her name before the public. Her last commercial film to date was 2006’s Ray of Sunshine. She has since, however, appeared in To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen’s Journey, a 2010 documentary about her life and career. She also does commentary on the recently released Blu-ray of her 1964 film, Fate Is the Hunter.

Nancy Kwan, who has been mentioned as a possible future winner of a life achievement Oscar, is a spritely 75

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG (1960), directed by Richard Quine

Kwan was just 20 when she auditioned for the role that would make her famous. Although producer Ray Stark and co-star William Holden both wanted her for the role, Paramount executives preferred France Nuyen who played the part on Broadway. Nuyen was signed and set to star with Kwan replacing her in the London run of the production, however Nuyen’s recent break-up with Marlon Brando resulted in a nervous breakdown and she was fired from the film, paving the way for Kwan’s celebrated debut.

The enormously successful film received generally mixed reviews but even naysayers praised convent educated Kwan’s exuberant portrayal of the Hong Kong prostitute, which won her a Golden Globe for Best Female Newcomer as well as a nomination for Best Actress – Drama.

FLOWER DRUM SONG (1961), directed by Henry Koster

A dancer since the age of six, Kwan was perfectly at home as the modern Chinese showgirl in the hit film version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Broadway smash. Although she could sing, she was dubbed as was then the tradition in Hollywood for stars not particularly known for their singing.

Hailed as the first Hollywood film with an all-Asian cast, she, Miyoshi Umeki, James Shigeta, Juanita Hall and Benson Fong are all first-rate in this delightfully charming musical that pokes fun at the generation gap.

FATE IS THE HUNTER (1964), directed by Ralph Nelson

Taking a different spin than Ernest K. Gann’s best-seller, this was an exciting suspense filled yarn about a plane crash and its aftermath. The outcome is both startling and real and its solution simple yet extraordinary. The scary thing is it could still happen today.

Glenn Ford is excellent as the investigator who won’t believe his friend, pilot Rod Taylor, was the cause of the crash and enlists the aid of oceanographer Kwan and others in finding answers. Kwan’s character, who had known Taylor less than a month, is the sole beneficiary of his revised will.

Suzanne Pleshette, Wally Cox, Nehemiah Persoff and Warren Stevens head the supporting cast.

DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY (1993), directed by Rob Cohen

Kwan has a pivotal supporting role in the Jason Scott Lee-Lauren Holly starrer about the martial arts superstar. She plays a restaurant owner who sponsors Lee in his dream of opening a karate school in Hong Kong on his way to fame and fortune.

That same year she turned down a major role in The Joy Luck Club because the producers refused to change a line that ridiculed The World of Suzie Wong.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: KA SHEN’S JOURNEY (2010), directed by Brian Jamieson

Kwan’s life story is told against the background of a 2006 Hong Kong opera version of The World of Suzie Wong. Ka Shen is the Chinese name for Nancy. The first part of the title comes from the salutation on the letter of credit Suzie Wong asks her artist lover to write for her dead son at the end of the film The most poignant part of the film concerns Kwan’s devotion to her real-life son, Bernie Pock, a noted stunt man, stunt coordinator, actor and director who she raised single-handedly for the first 17 years of his life, who died of AIDS in 1996 at the age of 33.

The documentary film, which never had an actual theatrical release, was shown at several film festivals and is available on DVD by itself or as an extra on Twilight Time’s Blu-ray release of Fate Is the Hunter.