A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was unveiled Wednesday honoring Michelle Yeoh for a film acting career that began with Hong Kong action films, then grew into roles in blockbusters and saw her become the first Asian performer to win the best actress Oscar.
“This is beyond insane and surreal,” Yeoh said as she accepted the honor during a ceremony in front of the TCL Chinese Theatre. “… I am so psyched.”
Yeoh gave thanks to her parents for helping to guide her to pursue her big-screen dreams.
“Growing up in Malaysia, I lived between two worlds of wonder — one was the glowing cinema screens which always felt so far away, and the other was the quiet fishing trips with my parents under the vast open skies,” she said. “My father would point out the North Star. He said, `The one you can always trust to guide you home.’ And beside him was my mom … who taught me that the horizon was far wider than I ever imagined.
“Between the two of them, I found my roots and my wings. I honestly never dreamed that one day my own North Star would be here, etched into the ground of Hollywood Boulevard. The path from Malaysia to here wasn’t a straight line. There were moments that I wondered if I belonged. But I was fortunate, fortunate to be part of stories that crossed borders and languages, stories that reminded us how deeply connected we all are.”
Jon M. Chu and Ang Lee joined Yeoh in speaking at the ceremony. Chu directed Yeoh in “Wicked” and its sequel, “Wicked: For Good.” Lee directed her in the 2000 epic, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
Among those also in attendance were Sandra Oh, Awkwafina and Ke Huy Quan.
Born Aug. 6, 1962 in Ipoh, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Perak, Yeoh began studying ballet at age 4, but a spinal injury ended her hopes of becoming a professional dancer.
Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia World beauty contest in 1983 and represented Malaysia at the Miss World 1983 pageant in London, finishing 18th. She won the Miss Moomba International pageant in Australia later in 1983.
Yeoh’s first acting job was in a television commercial for Guy Laroche watches with Jackie Chan, which caught the attention of the fledgling Hong Kong film production company D&B Films.
She made six films for D&B Films between 1984 and 1987, then married one of its co-founders, Dickson Poon, in 1987, and retired from acting.
Yeoh divorced Poon in 1992 and returned to acting, co-starring with Chan in the 1992 Hong Kong action film, “Police Story 3: Supercop.”
She began her Hollywood career with the 1997 James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies,” portraying a Chinese spy who works with Bond (Pierce Brosnan) to stop a media mogul (Jonathan Pryce), who plans to start a war between China and the United Kingdom.
Yeoh won her Oscar for her roles as struggling laundromat owner Evelyn Quan Wang and several alternate dimension versions of the character in 2022’s absurdist comedy-drama “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which also won the Academy Award for best picture.
Yeoh’s other film credits include “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Sunshine,” the Marvel Cinematic Universe film “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny,” and “A Haunting in Venice.”
Her television credits include “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Section 31”; the Disney+ fantasy action comedy, “American Born Chinese”; and the Netflix action comedy drama, ”The Brothers Sun.” She will star in the Prime Video science fiction miniseries “Blade Runner 2099,” set to premiere this year.
Yeoh’s star is the 2,836th since the completion of the Walk of Fame in 1961 with the initial 1,558 stars.