Kieu Chinh
Acting
Born July 3, 1937, Hanoi, Vietnam
Kieu Chinh (born September 3rd, 1937) is a Vietnamese-American actress, producer, humanitarian, lecturer and philanthropist. One of the most prominent film stars in South Vietnam during the 60s and 70s, she immigrated to America after 1975 and eventually settled in California where she resumed acting with the help of Tippi Hedron; her first credit in America was as Hawkeye’s South Korean love interest in the TV show M*A*S*H. Subsequently, Kieu Chinh appeared in 45 feature films and television shows, among them the TV movies The Children of An Lac (1980), The Letter (1982) and The Girl Who Spelled Freedom (1986), and films like Hamburger Hill (1987), Gleaming the Cube (1988), Riot (1997) and Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (1999). She also landed a recurring role on ABC’s Vietnam war series China Beach from 1989 to 1991 and the Fox TV show 21 in 2008. But her best-known role is that of Suyuan Woo in Wayne Wang’s The Joy Luck Club in 1993, a film about the relationship between Chinese immigrant mothers and their Chinese-American mothers. Amongst the accolades that Chinh has received in her six-decade career are the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Vietnamese International Film Festival in 2003, the Special Acting Award at the Women’s Film Festival in Turin in 2003, and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the San Diego Asian Film Festival and the San Francisco Film Fest in 2006 and 2015, respectively. In 2009, Chinh was honored as the Woman of the Year for her work in film and community service by California Representative Lou Correa.
Filmography
- 2026Chrysalis
- 2026The 23rd Annual Unforgettable Awards
- 2025Control Freak — Aunt Thuy
- Dope Thief — Xuan 'Grandma' Pham
- 2024Just One Life — Nadia
- 2024My Eyes — Mrs. Cheong
- The Sympathizer — Crapulent Major's Mother
- 2019Finding Julia — Van Tran, Writer
- 2019In Full Bloom — Cecile
- The Neighborhood — Tuyen
- 2014Hollow — Shaman Linh
- 2012Pearls of the Far East — Kieu
- 2012Trade of Innocents — (voice)
- 200921 and a Wake-Up — Mamason
- NCIS: Los Angeles — Kim Nguyen, Madge
- 200821 — Chinese Woman
- 2007Journey from the Fall — Ba Noi (Grandmother)
- 2003Tempted — Kehau
- 2002Face — Mrs. Liu
- 2001Green Dragon — Kieu
- 2000What's Cooking? — Grandma Nguyen
- 1999Catfish in Black Bean Sauce — Thanh
- 1998City of Angels — Asian Woman
- Martial Law — Lin Sung Yuan
- 1997Riot — Mrs. Lee
- Promised Land — Mrs. Kim
- Cybill — Herbalist
- Chicago Hope — Mrs. Mai Ying Wang
- ER — Mrs. Chen
- Touched by an Angel — Lang, Mrs. Kim
- 1993The Joy Luck Club — Suyuan Wong
- 1990Last Flight Out
- 1990The Girl Who Came Between Them — Thuy
- 1990Vietnam Texas — Mallan
- 1989Gleaming the Cube — Madame Trac
- 1989Welcome Home — Leang
- 1987Hamburger Hill — Mama San
- 1986The Girl Who Spelled Freedom — Phoen Yann
- 1986The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer — Sai Luhn
- 1983Cocaine: One Man's Seduction — Mrs. Marchais
- 1982The Letter — Chinese Woman
- 1981Fly Away Home — Anh
- 1981The Other Victim — Mrs. Troung
- 1980The Children of An Lac — Thuy
- Roots: The Next Generations — U.N. Receptionist
- 1978My Husband Is Missing — Lu-An
- 1978The Lucifer Complex — Major Chinn Lee
- 1977The Hostage Heart — Flor Aquino
- 1973The Shadow on the Roadside
- 1972Love Storm — Thủy
- 1971Warrior, Who Are You — Mỹ Lan
- 1970The Evil Within — Kamar Souria
- 1967From Saigon to Dien Bien Phu — Kiều Loan
- 1965Operation C.I.A. — Kim-Chinh
- 1964A Yank in Viet-Nam — Kieu Chinh
- 1964The Eyes I Used to Know