Michelle Yeoh biography

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Born as Yeoh Chu-Kheng in Ipoh, Malaysia on August 6, 1962. Although Michelle Yeoh's parents are both of Chinese ethnicity, Malay and English were her first languages, followed only later by Cantonese and Mandarin. Yeoh would later be known as the Queen of Martial Arts, but her first passion was for dance. She began formal training as a ballerina at the age of four. When she was fifteen, she moved to England to study at London's Royal Academy of Dance. Her dreams of becoming a prima ballerina were cut short when she suffered a spinal cord injury, however. Despite the setback, Yeoh finished her bachelor's degree in London, focusing on choreography and drama.

In 1983, the former ballerina got her first taste of fame when she was crowned Miss Malaysia at the age of 21. Soon after, she would compete for, and eventually win, the title of Miss Moomba, a beauty pageant in Australia. Her stint as a beauty queen led quickly to television, where she was cast alongside stars Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat in a series of commercials. These appearances led to a multi-film contract with D&B Productions, a company headed by her future husband Dickson Poon.

While Yeoh's first role in a major film was more damsel-in-distress than martial arts superstar, she did find inspiration in the on-screen fights and action sequences on the set of The Owl vs. Dumbo in 1984. Before her next movie, she trained more than ten hours a day to get into fighting shape for the more physical roles for which she would soon become famous. Over her next four films, Yeoh laid the groundwork for her storied action movie career, performing her own stunts and putting her body to the test.

In 1988, she married Poon, a billionaire, and briefly retired from acting. Though Yeoh and Poon divorced three years later, the two remained friends.

In 1992, Yeoh made her comeback in Jackie Chan's Police Story III: Supercop. This box office hit cemented her place as Asia's top female action star. In order to get ready for her powerhouse roles, Yeoh had to learn kung-fu, karate, and other forms of hand-to-hand combat. When asked about the challenges of taking kicks and punches for a living, she says, "I prefer to be kicked four or five times well, you know, hard, than twenty or twenty five times not so good..."

Yeoh's career as an action hero off was off to the races and she soon became the highest paid actress in Asia. She continued to make movies at a breakneck pace, often working alongside superstars such as Chan