Anna May Wong, a legendary figure from the silent film period, has transitioned into a new type of fame. As of Monday, she will be the first Asian American to be featured on US money. Her picture will be included in the new quarters.

Anna May Wong is the sixth woman to be honoured by the American Women Quarters Program, which features influential women on U.S. money. Maya Angelou, the poet and activist; Sally Ride, the first American woman in space; Wilma Mankiller, the head of the Cherokee Nation; Nina Otero-Warren, the suffragist. The public helped choose the last two, as well as Wong.

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Who is Anna May Wong

Wong, a second-generation Chinese immigrant who was born in Los Angeles under the name Wong Liu-Tsong, began her cinema career at the age of 14 as an extra in The Red Lantern (1919). Only three years later, in the lead part of The Toll of the Sea (1922), which was among the earliest Technicolor movies, did she receive critical praise.

Wong went on to participate in more than 60 films, including the financially successful Shanghai Express (1932), and shared the screen with celebrities like Marlene Dietrich, Laurence Olivier, and Joan Crawford. The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong (1951), in which she played the major role, featured the first Asian American performer in that position.

In the late 1920s, she traveled to Europe and appeared in several well-known plays and movies, including Piccadilly. She spent the first part of the 1930s moving back and forth between the US and Europe for theater and film work. Wong starred alongside Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg’s Shanghai Express and appeared in early sound era movies like Daughter of the Dragon and Daughter of Shanghai.

Despite her accomplishments, Wong struggled against racism because it was so pervasive at the time.

Wong had a forty-year career spanning the screen, stage, and airwaves until his untimely death in 1961. She shared the screen with luminaries like Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, and Laurence Olivier and performed on Broadway and in London.

Anna May Wong, a Los Angeles native who began acting at the age of 14, made her debut in the starring part in a film in 1922’s “The Toll of the Sea.”

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The 1932 film Shanghai Express was directed by Wong and stars Marlene Dietrich as a renowned prostitute who is taken captive on a train traveling across China during the Chinese Civil War. Wong played the role of a fellow business class traveler.

Her legacy is still felt today even though she passed away on February 3, 1961, from a heart attack. In 1960, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Production has begun on a biopic of the actor’s life, featuring Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians).