Kiều Chinh

Kieu Chinh began her acting career in her South Vietnam, starting with a starring role in Hồi Chuông Thiên Mụ (The Bells of Thiên Mụ Temple) (1957). Kieu Chinh soon became one of South Vietnam's best-known personalities.

In the 1960s, in addition to Vietnamese films, she also appeared in several American productions including A Yank in Viet-Nam (1964) and Operation C.I.A. (1965), the latter opposite Burt Reynolds. Kieu Chinh also produced a war epic Người Tình Không Chân Dung (Warrior, Who Are You) (1971), which later would be remastered and shown in the U.S. at the 2003 Vietnamese International Film Festival.

In 1975, while Kieu Chinh was on the set in Singapore, communist North Vietnamese overran Saigon. Kieu Chinh left for the U.S. where she resumed her acting career in a 1977 episode of M*A*S*H "In Love and War", written by Alan Alda and loosely based on her life story.

Kieu Chinh subsequently acted in feature films as well as TV-movies including The Children of An Lac (TV), Hamburger Hill (1987), Riot (1997), Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (1999), Face (2002), Journey From The Fall (2005), 21 (2008).

From 1989 to 1991, she had a recurring role as Triệu Âu on the ABC Vietnam War drama series China Beach.

In 2015, she co-produced Ride The Thunder (2015), a Fred Koster film based on the book of the same title, written by Richard Botkin.

In her best known role, she starred as Suyuan, one of the women in Wayne Wang’s The Joy Luck Club (film) in 1993. In 2005, Kieu Chinh starred in Journey from the Fall, an epic feature film tracing a Vietnamese family through the aftermath of the fall of Saigon, the re-education camps, the boat people experience, and the initial difficulties of settling in the U.S.

For over a decade, Kieu Chinh has been a lecturer of the Greater Talent Network in New York. She has been invited to give keynote addresses at Pfizer, Kellogg, Cornell University and University of San Diego.

Kieu Chinh is also active in philanthropic work. Together with journalist Terry Anderson, she co-founded the Vietnam Children’s Fund, which has built schools in Vietnam attended by more than 25,000 students annually. Kieu Chinh and Anderson continue to serve as the Fund’s co-chair.

• Hồi Chuông Thiên Mụ (The Bells of Thien Mu Temple) 1957
• A Yank in Viet-Nam 1964
• Operation C.I.A. 1965
• The Evil Within 1970
• Người Tình Không Chân Dung (Faceless Lover) 1971
• Bão Tình (Storm of love) 1972
• Chiếc Bóng Bên Đường (Roadside Shadow) 1973
• Switch
  • "The 100,000 Ruble Rumble" 1976
• Cover Girls 1977
• The Hostage Heart 1977
• M*A*S*H
  • (Season 6) Episode 130 "In Love and War" (1977)
• The Lucifer Complex 1978
• The Children of An Lac 1980
• Hamburger Hill 1987
• Gleaming the Cube 1988
• Vietnam-Texas 1990
• Welcome Home 1989
• The Joy Luck Club 1993
• Riot 1997
• City of Angels 1998
• Catfish in Black Bean Sauce 1999
• What's Cooking? 2000
• Green Dragon 2001
• Face 2002
• Journey from the Fall 2006
• 21 (2008)
• 21 and a Wake-Up (2009)
• Hollow (2014)
• Ride The Thunder (2015)
• NCIS: Los Angeles (2015)

At the 2003 Vietnamese International Film Festival, Kieu Chinh received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Also in 2003, at the Women's Film Festival in Turin Kieu Chinh was awarded the Special Acting Award. In 2006, the San Diego Asian Film Festival honored Kieu Chinh with the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015, the San Francisco Film Fest, Festival of Globe honors Kieu Chinh with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the film industry and more.

A documentary based on her life, Kieu Chinh: A Journey Home by Patrick Perez / KTTV, won the Emmy in 1996.

In 2009, Chinh was honored as the 2009 Woman of the Year for her work in film and community service by State Senator Lou Correa.

• Kieu Chinh on IMDb
• Vietnam Children's Fund