YEOH, MICHELLE

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

(August 6, 1962–     ; birth name: Yeoh Chu-Kheng): Athletic and charismatic Malaysian actress who portrayed feisty Chinese secret agent Colonel Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies. Yeoh was even more memorable a few years later in the martial arts classic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).

A native of Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, who was named Miss Malaysia in 1983, Yeoh made her motion picture debut as Miss Yeung in director Sammo Hung’s action comedy The Owl vs. Bumbo (1984). More recently, Yeoh took on the key role of Captain Philippa Georgiou in the television series Star Trek: Discovery (16 episodes, 2017–2019), she was Aleta Ogord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), and she played wealthy, hard-nosed matriarch Eleanor Young in the enormously popular feature Crazy Rich Asians (2018). Her terrific performance opposite fellow Bond player Will Yun Lee in the British action series Strike Back (9 episodes, 2015) is also a career highlight.

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