By John Cairns

WAN CHAI, Hong Kong – Actress Nancy Kwan, best known for 50 years as Suzie Wong, shed a few tears up on the big movie screen. Watching from a front-row seat at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, she cried a bit more.

A near-capacity audience watched the Asia premiere of To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen’s Journey, a two-hour biographical documentary about the triumphs and prolonged successes that made Nancy a Hollywood movie star and about a few personal tragedies. The most emotional, tell-all moments swirled around the death from HIV/AIDS of her only child.

Born in Hong Kong, but now a long-time Californian, Nancy gained world fame for playing a lively and likable Hong Kong prostitute in a 1960 romantic blockbuster, The World of Suzie Wong, co-starring William Holden.

Recently, 70-year-old Nancy returned to Hong Kong for the March 22 premiere of the documentary (from Salon Films) about her life and career. Its title refers to her Chinese name, Kwan Ka Shen.

Moments after the screening, Nancy climbed onstage to address the audience. “I’m still emotional,” she confessed, wiping at her eyes to loud applause.

Other people had cried a little too as the documentary highlighted the heartbreak when Nancy’s son, 33-year-old Bernhard Pock, succumbed in 1996 to a deadly disease contracted from his girlfriend. At first, Nancy hadn’t been sure she could discuss that “sensitive” subject on-camera, but she did.

“I just saw this wonderful movie, and I’m very touched,” said China Film Association chairman Li Qiankuan, a long-time movie director, who attended the premiere. Then he addressed Nancy. “You’re a great movie star, but even more, you’re a great mother with heart and courage.”

The documentary also details Nancy’s closeness to her Cantonese father who raised her and a strained relationship with her “gypsy”-like Scottish mother. Her parents separated when she was a toddler.

Nancy had three marriages of her own. The latest, to director-producer Norbert Meisel in 1976, remains intact.

“When I was a child growing up in Hong Kong, it was a small, laid-back seaport with miles of open space,” Nancy said. “We could play ball in the streets, and there was hardly any traffic.”

Being back in Hong Kong made nostalgia inevitable. So Nancy even visited the modern version of the Luk Kwok Hotel, a main setting for The World of Suzie Wong. Tourists still call its vicinity the “Suzie Wong district”.

“That was one of the first films in which all the exterior locations were shot entirely in Hong Kong…,” she said. “It’s hard to believe that’s 50 years ago, but what a journey it was!” What a career it began!

As Hollywood’s first Asian superstar, Nancy helped to pave the way for other Hong Kong stars, including Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li. Arguably, she’s still the most successful one.

Through the years, Nancy starred convincingly in dozens of movies, TV shows and commercials. Some roles made her a sex symbol, and others more of a screen-and-style icon. She even graced the cover of Life magazine’s October 24, 1960, issue.

Director Brian Jamieson says that even a full-length documentary wasn’t enough to mention all Nancy’s roles: “If I’d tried to include every motion picture and television production that Nancy performed in during her career, we’d have had a mini-series.”

In 1961, Nancy scored another movie hit with her second role, the lead in Flower Drum Song, a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Among her subsequent movies were: Tamahine (1963), The Wild Affair (1963), Fate Is the Hunter (1964), The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969), The Wrecking Crew (with Dean Martin and Elke Sommer, 1969), Angkor: Cambodia Express (1982), Noble House (1988), Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993) and Hollywood Chinese (2007). Her TV work included Kung-Fu, Hawaii Five-O and The A-Team.

As a child at Hong Kong’s Maryknoll Convent School, Nancy wanted to become a nun.  “When I would ask my father, he’d say, ‘wait until you’re older’,” she recalled. By her teenage years, she dreamed of ballet and even studied at the Royal Ballet School in England.

Once Nancy visited a fortune teller who spoke of movie stardom, but she scoffed at the notion. Soon, “much to everyone’s surprise, including my own”, she began her movie career. A producer noticed her, and she did screen tests, leading to the Suzie Wong role.

When good film projects appear, Nancy remains ready – hence, the documentary. Everyone has ups and downs in life and work, she says.

Honestly, then, is Nancy really the greatest Hollywood star ever to emerge from Hong Kong? Based on her towering success and career longevity, the answer looks like a firm “yes”.

Among her main rivals, Bruce Lee died much too young (age 32). Jackie Chan, despite trying hard, fails to play his roles convincingly. Even Chow Yun Fat’s diverse movie career, already three decades strong, has yet to surpass Nancy’s, at least on the Hollywood side of the Pacific.

For more information: www.nancy-kwan.com




Nancy graces the cover of a famous magazine.




Once back in Hong Kong, Nancy meets the media.




Cameras naturally point toward a movie star.