Reza wrote:anonymous1980 wrote:Michelle Yeoh is of course the first Asian actress and the second woman of color to win Best Lead Actress.
The last time an Asian actress was nominated for an Oscar in the lead category was 87 years ago when Merle Oberon got a nod in 1935 for The Dark Angel. Yeoh has finally broken that barrier just as Halle Berry did for a Black actress in 2002.
You're both wrong.
Michelle Yeoh is only the second woman of color to win a Best Actress Oscar, but she is not the first Asian. She was preceded by Vivien Leigh (twice), Cher, and Natalie Portman.
Yeoh is the first Southeast Asian actress nominated for Best Actress. She was preceded by Merle Oberon (part Sri Lankin and Maori), Leigh (part Armenian and Parsi Indian), Cher (Armenian descent), Salma Hayek (Lebanese descent), Angelina Jolie (joint American/Cambodian citizenship), and Natalie Portman (Israeli born, of dual Israel and American citizenship). All except Hayek have won. Jolie’s win was in support.
Yul Brynner, born in Vladivostok, Russia of Buryat descent was the first actor of Asian descent to be nominated and win in the Best Actor category for 1956’s <em>The King and I</em>. He was succeeded by Topol (Israeli), Ben Kingsley twice, F. Murray Abraham (Syrian descent), Demian Bichir (Lebanese descent), Riz Ahmd (Pakistani descent), and Steven Yeun (Korean descent). Kingsley and Abraham were also winners, for <em>Gandhi</em> and <em>Amadeus</em>, respectively.
Stephanie Hsu (Chinese descent) and Hong Chau (Vietnamese) were te eleventh and twelfth actresses nominated in support. They were preceded by Miyoshi Umeki (Japanese), Cher, Meg Tilly (Chinese descent). Jennifer Tilly (Chinese descent), Jolie, Catharine Keener twice (Lebanese descent), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Iranian), Portman, Rinko Kikuchi (Japanese), Hailee Steinfeld (Filipino descent), and Yuh-Jung Youn (Korean). only Umeki, Jolie, and Youn won.
Ke Huy Quan was preceded in nominations by eight other actors of Asian descent. They were Akim Tamiroff twice (the Armenian descendent was the first Asian to achieve multiple nominations), Sessue Hayakaka, (the Japanese actor was the first East Asian nominated), Omar Sharif (Lebanese descent), Mako (Japanese descent), Haing S. Ngor (Japanese/Cambodian descent), Pat Morita (Japanese descent), Ben Kingsley twice (Indian descent), Ken Watanabe (Japanese), and Dev Patel (Indian descent). Ngor was the only previous winner.