Bai Ling means "white spirit" in her Chinese dialect and she has become a rising actress on both sides of the Pacific. The delicate, almost ethereal actress was particularly memorable to USA audiences as Myca, the drug-pushing cannibal with a taste for eyeballs, in Alex Proyas' thriller "The Crow" (1994) and as the President's Chinese interpreter in Oliver Stone's "Nixon" (1995). The latter role was almost ironic as Bai Ling had arrived in the USA just four years earlier not knowing one word of English.
Raised in a typical Chinese family, one accepting of the revolution, Bai Ling was a musical performer at age 14, inducted into the army and sent to Tibet to entertain the troops. In 1986, she also made her film debut in "Haitan" and subsequently appeared in films made in China. Worldwide audiences could catch a glimpse of her in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Little Buddha" (1993), but it was her subsequent efforts in "Dead Funny" (1995) and her delightful turn as an Americanized immigrant in "Somewhere in the City" (1996) that brought her attention. Bai Ling made headlines when she landed the leading role opposite Richard Gere in the political thriller "Red Corner" (1997).
Her TV work has included "Nobody's Girls" (PBS, 1994) a documentary with recreations in which Bai Ling was Mary Bong, a 15-year old Chinese woman who became famous as a midwife after she settled in Alaska. She made her American TV-movie debut in "Dead Weekend" (Showtime, 1995).
Family
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Brother: Bai Chen. Emigrated to Japan and works for an American company
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Father: Bai Yu-xiang. Musician in the People s Liberation Army; was also a music teacher; divorced Ling s mother and later remarried
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Grandmother: Peng Zhi-jia.
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Mother: Chen Bin-bin. Was a literature teacher at Sichuan University; divorced Ling s father and later remarried the writer Xu Chi
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Sister: Bai Jie. Works for a tax bureau in China
Significant Others
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Companion: Chris Isaak. Dated from 1999-2001
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Companion: Damon Elliott. Briefly linked to Dionne Warwick s son
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Companion: Qu Xiao-Song. Dated in the mid 1990s
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Companion: Scott DeGirolamo.
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Companion: Chris Isaak. reportedly dating from late 1999
Education
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New York University, New York, NY
Milestones
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1986 Became an artist soldier in Linzhi, Tibet
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1986 Made film debut in Haitan
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1990 Moved to the states to attend New York University s film department as a visiting scholar
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1993 Had cameo role in Little Buddha
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1994 Made American film debut in The Crow
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1995 Appeared in the Showtime movie, Dead Weekend
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1995 Played an interpreter in Oliver Stone s Nixon
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1997 Played the female lead, opposite Richard Gere, in Jon Avnet s Red Corner
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1999 Cast as Tuptim in the remake of Anna and the King
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1999 Played an Asian vamp in Wild Wild West
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2001 Had featured role in the NBC miniseries, The Monkey King
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2003 Cast as one of the titular Extreme Team in the ABC TV-movie
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2004 Featured in Spike Lee s comedy, She Hate Me
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2004 Played the Mysterious Woman in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
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2005 Had a small role as a Photographer in Catherine Hardwicke s Lords of Dogtown
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2006 Played an ambitious journalist, opposite Ben Affleck, in Man About Town
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2007 Co-starred with Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Cheri Oteri in Richard Kelly s Southland Tales
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2009 Appeared opposite Jason Statham in the thriller, Crank 2: High Voltage