Silent era movie icon Anna May Wong is now a different kind of star. Starting Monday, her image will appear on new quarters, making her the first Asian American to appear on US currency.
Wong’s image on the currency is the fifth new face in the American Women Quarters Program, which spotlilghts pioneering women. The other four quarters put into production this year feature poet and activist Maya Angelou; Sally Ride, the first American woman in space; Wilma Mankiller, a Cherokee Nation leader; and suffragist Nina Otero-Warren. The latter two and Wong were selected with input from the public.
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Wong, who died in 1961, had a four-decade career in film, theater, and radio. Her co-stars included Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, and Laurence Olivier, while she made stage appearances in London and New York.
Born in Los Angeles, Wong started acting at 14, winning her first film lead role three years later in “The Toll of the Sea,” which bowed in 1922.
Wong’s films included Shanghai Express, a 1932 film that starred Dietrich as a notorious courtesan who takes a three-day rail journey through China during the Chinese Civil War and is held hostage on board. Wong portrayed a fellow first-class passenger.
She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the year before she died at age 56.
A biopic of the actor’s life is in production, starring Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians).
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