Joan Chen

Celebrity

  • Birth Name: Chén Chong
  • Birth Place: Shanghai, China
  • Date of Birth / Zodiac Sign: 04/26/1961, Taurus
  • Profession: Actor; director
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Joan Chen Fast Facts:
  • Birth name Chén Chōng is translated as "charge on." 
  • Her parents, both physicians, were sent to re-education camps during China's Cultural Revolution.
  • Was a teen film star in China after being discovered by Jiang Qing, the wife of Chairman Mao Zedong, who sent her to study acting at the Shanghai Film Studio.
  • Moved to the U.S. at age 20, and was discovered (in the parking lot of Lorimar studios) by producer Dino Di Laurentiis, who cast her in the 1986 adventure Tai-Pan.
  • Breakout role was as the drug-addicted Chinese empress in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1986 epic The Last Emperor
  • Biggest TV role was mill owner Josie Packard in Twin Peaks; had guest roles in a number of series in the '80s and '90s, including MacGyver, Miami Vice, Night Stalker and Homicide: Life in the Streets.
  • Her directorial debut, Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (1999), an acclaimed drama critical of the cultural revolution, was banned in China.
  • Joan Chen Relationships:
  • Jim Lau - Ex-husband
  • Peter Hui - Husband
  • Chase Chen - Brother
  • Angela Frances Hui - Daughter
  • Chen Xing Rong - Father
  • Zhang An Zhong - Mother
  • Audrey Hui - Daughter
  • College:
  • Atended State University of New York, New Paltz, NY; California State University, Northridge, CA (BA in Film Production, 1991)
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