The First Chinese Woman to Win an Oscar
Michelle Yeoh made Oscars history with her win for Everything Everywhere All at Once, becoming the first Asian woman to take home the golden trophy. She beat out past nominees Cate Blanchett, Andrea Riseborough, Michelle Williams and Ana de Armas to do so.
The acclaimed actress won over movie critics and audiences for her portrayal of frazzled laundromat owner Evelyn Wang, who finds herself tasked with connecting with multiple versions of herself from parallel universes to save the multiverse from destruction.
Michelle Yeoh
A Malaysian actress, Yeoh rose to prominence in Hong Kong action films in the 1980s and 1990s. She was known for bucking damsel in distress stereotypes and taking on roles that required her to do more than just dance around and kick butt. Yeoh landed a role in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and Ang Lee’s martial arts movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She has gone on to star in a host of other notable films, including Memoirs of a Geisha, The Lady, Sunshine, and Kung Fu Panda 2.
Yeoh’s win in 2023 was considered a milestone for Asian women. She became the first Asian woman to win an Oscar in a leading role, as well as the first Malaysian-born woman to do so. She won the award for her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once, which tells the story of a Chinese-American laundromat owner who navigates an IRS audit and complex relationships with her family.
In her acceptance speech, Yeoh thanked her mentors and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for recognizing her work. She also acknowledged the many young people who watch the Oscars and said she hopes they will be inspired to pursue their dreams despite obstacles.
As a trailblazer in both the acting world and Asian-American communities, Yeoh is an inspiration for all who follow her lead. She has shown that there is no limit to what a person can achieve if they are willing to work hard and remain true to their convictions. Her dedication to her craft has resulted in a lifetime of awards and accolades, including being named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by TIME Magazine. It is no wonder that Yeoh is one of the most honored actors in Hollywood history. We cannot wait to see what she will do next.
Merle Oberon
The fact that Michelle Yeoh has become the first Asian woman to win a Best Actress Oscar in over 85 years has been met with a mix of applause and outrage. But the honor comes with a troubling caveat: That woman’s predecessor, Merle Oberon, spent her entire career passing for white. Born Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson in Bombay, India, the daughter of a Welsh mechanical engineer and his Indian wife, Oberon was forced to live a lie throughout her life.
Anglo-Indians of her era were neither accepted as British nor Indian, and the only way for Oberon to survive was to pass for white. She would never acknowledge her mixed heritage, and would often portray characters who had darker skin than herself, as she did in her 1935 Oscar-winning performance in The Dark Angel.
Oberon was a rare beauty who used her natural allure to snag small bit parts on the side in silent films before moving to England in 1928 at age 17. It wasn’t until she met producer (and her eventual first husband) Alexander Korda that she made a major impact on film. He cast her as Anne Boleyn in his 1933 hit The Private Life of Henry VIII, and Oberon’s rise to fame took off.
However, Oberon’s racial identity was a constant source of pain and embarrassment. She was constantly questioned about her ethnicity by fans and the media, and she retreated into her facade.
It was a pattern that many women of her era followed. Luise Rainer pretended to be Austrian for her career, Vivien Leigh adopted cleancut French and Irish ancestry to match Scarlett O’Hara’s in her films, and Oberon herself pushed the narrative that she had simply used makeup to play non-white roles in her earlier work. It wasn’t until after Oberon’s death in 1979 that the truth came out about her true racial background. It was the only time she ever spoke about it publicly. And that, more than her eye-opening performance in The Dark Angel, is what should be remembered about her.
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, to a progressive family that encouraged her to speak out and sharpen her mind. She began her acting career on Broadway after studying at Bryn Mawr College, where she received favorable reviews for her performances. After her stage career, Hepburn landed a role in the film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1933). The film received positive reviews and was a box office hit. Hepburn soon became a major Hollywood star and was offered a long-term contract by RKO Radio Pictures. Her film roles in melodramas and comedies earned her numerous awards and nominations, including an Academy Award for Best Actress for Morning Glory (1933). However, she stumbled into a string of commercial failures and became “box office poison” until she bought out her contract with the studio and produced the film rights to the play The Philadelphia Story, which was a smashing success.
Hepburn won four more Oscars in the years to follow, for Bringing Up Baby (1938), Adam’s Rib (1949), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) and The Lion in Winter (1968). She also won three additional Golden Globe Awards and 12 nominations for Tony Awards. Hepburn was a true original, combining a svelte beauty with a fiery intelligence that set her apart from other actresses of her generation.
In the role of Elizabeth Taylor in Gone with the Wind (1939), Hepburn is a beautiful and sexy southern belle, and she completely inhabits the character. Her performance is stunning, and her portrayal of a shattered woman who still maintains her dignity is unforgettable. She is a force to be reckoned with on screen, and her Oscar win for this role is well deserved.
When Hepburn won her fourth Oscar for On Golden Pond in 1981, it was the first time a performer had won four competitive Oscars. Despite her amazing accomplishments, Hepburn was a quiet and private person who did not attend the ceremony after winning her award. She remained humble and classy, never complaining or criticizing her fellow winners. She did, however, attend the 1974 ceremony, where she presented the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to producer Lawrence Weingarten.
Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer, the first actress to win back-to-back Oscars, has died at her home in London at age 104. She had pneumonia. Rainer was born in Germany and became a stage actress before she was talent-spotted by MGM. She was a protege of legendary theater director Max Reinhardt in 1930s Vienna and made several German films before moving to Hollywood. An MGM talent scout predicted that she would become MGM’s next Garbo, the incandescent Swedish film star of the 1920s.
Rainer won her first Oscar in 1935 for her role as the wife of impresario Florenz Ziegfeld in The Great Ziegfeld. Her second was a year later for her portrayal of O-Lan in the classic movie The Good Earth. Both were considered breakthrough performances at the time and won critical acclaim and huge box-office success. But the films are criticized today for their condescending ethnic stereotyping, and for Rainer’s insistence on being paid equally with her male co-stars.
The Good Earth was also a controversial film for its depiction of Chinese peasants and their culture. It was not well received in China at the time, and many critics called it racist. It is also noteworthy that the film was directed by Frank Borzage, a white man.
Four actors have matched Rainer’s Oscar double: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Jason Robards and Tom Hanks. She was a popular choice for dramatic roles, often playing tragic figures. She was the first woman to win an Oscar for a role not adapted from a play, and her acting career lasted into the 1950s.
Rainer stopped making films in 1946, though she appeared on Broadway in a couple of productions including the James M. Barrie play A Kiss for Cinderella. She married twice, and her daughter is actress Francesca Knittel Bowyer. She lived in Switzerland and England, enjoying travel, books, music and mountain climbing. She was honored by the German government in 1985 with the Bundesverdienstkreuz Erster Klasse. She and her second husband, publisher Robert Knittel, were buried in a military cemetery in Berlin. She was survived by two granddaughters.
