Bai Ling

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).