Brigitte Lin
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| Brigitte Lin | ||||||||||
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| Chinese name | 林青霞 | |||||||||
| Pinyin | lin2 qing1 xia2 (Mandarin) | |||||||||
| Ancestry | Shandong | |||||||||
| Born | November 3, 1954 Taipei, Taiwan |
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| Occupation | Actress | |||||||||
| Years active | 1972 – 1994 | |||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Michael Ying | |||||||||
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Brigitte Lin (Chinese: 林青霞; pinyin: Lín Qīngxiá) or Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia (born November 3, 1954) is a Taiwanese actress.
[edit] Biography
She was born in Taipei, and was "discovered" in 1972 by a film producer, and first appeared in many Taiwanese romance films based on the novels of Qiong Yao, also known as Chiung Yao. She later switched over to making movies in Hong Kong. At the height of her popularity she was arguably one of the most sought after actresses in the Chinese film industry. She starred in more than 100 movies[citation needed].
In Taiwan movies, Lin was almost always cast as the female protagonist in the Qiong Yao based movies she appeared in. Her film roles were often that of the ideal girl next door who everyone liked and all men wanted to be with. Her characters often will find love and then - when about to get married - or having just married - tragedy will strike. Often the tragedy is either her fiance's or husband's mother disapproves of her, her fiance or husband contracts some serious disease, her fiance or husband falls from a high place at his construction site job and is left in a coma, or similar plotlines. Usually the tragedy is overcome by the end of the movie and things end on a happy note. But, sometimes, not.
In Hong Kong movies, Lin made a career of playing transgender roles: in Peking Opera Blues she plays a tomboy who dresses in male Western clothes; in New Dragon Gate Inn she is a woman who dresses as a man, and in Swordsman II and III she plays a castrated male fighter slowly turning into a woman.
She married businessman Michael Ying in 1994 and left the film industry, and now lives in Hong Kong[citation needed]. She has two daughters, born in 1997 and 2001.
[edit] Partial filmography
- Fantasy Mission Force (1982)
- Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983)
- Police Story (1985)
- Peking Opera Blues (1986)
- Red Dust (1990)
- Swordsman II (1991)
- New Dragon Gate Inn (1992)
- Royal Tramp (1992)
- Royal Tramp II (1992)
- Swordsman III (1993)
- Deadful Melody (1993)
- The Bride with White Hair (1993)
- Ashes of Time (1994)
- Chungking Express (1994)
- Semi-Gods and Semi-Devils (1994)
- The Three Swordsmen (1994)
- Bishonen (1998)
