Cheng Pei-pei, the Chinese-born action film icon who starred in Ang Lee’s Oscar-nominated “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and King Hu’s seminal wuxia feature “Come Drink With Me,” has died. She was 78.
Cheng, considered a pioneer of martial arts roles for female actors, died in the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday. She had long suffered from a degenerative brain disease and has donated her brain to medical research.
Born in Shanghai on Jan. 6, 1946, Cheng moved to Hong Kong in 1962. With her ballet and dance training, she was soon working with the iconic Shaw Brothers studio. While her feature debut was drama film “Lovers’ Rock,” she became a major star in martial arts, action and swordplay movies following her breakout role in 1966’s “Come Drink With Me,” directed by King Hu. The film set the tone for a sequel (“Golden Swallow” in 1968), an unrealized remake by Quentin Tarantino and a host of other female-driven action movies from East Asia. At the time, it was named as Hong Kong’s submission for the international feature Oscar, but was not nominated.
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Cheng then relocated again: to California in the 1970s where she raised four children and attended business school at the University of California, Irvine. All four of her children have had roles in entertainment. Harry Yuan has been a host on National Geographic. Eugenia Yuan was a U.S. Olympic gymnast and has acted in Hong Kong films “3 Extremes II” and “The Eye 2,” Australian TV series “Secret City,” and U.S. productions “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny” and the revived “Hawaii Five-O” TV series.
Cheng’s career enjoyed a significant revival after her co-starring role as the poisonous Jade Fox in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” in 2000. The film won four Oscars and with $128 million earned at the North American box office, became the first foreign-language film to gross more than $100 million in the market.
Her subsequent career then spanned both sides of the Pacific Ocean, with titles including Hong Kong actioner “Naked Weapon” (alongside a young Maggie Q) and Hyde Park Entertainment’s Capcom game adaptation “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li.” More recent performances included the starring role in 2014’s “Lilting” and The Matchmaker in Disney’s 2020 live-action remake of “Mulan.”
“To all her friends, colleagues, and fans, thank you for all the support you showed her over the years. Our mom Cheng Pei Pei wanted to be remembered for who she was: the legendary Queen of Martial Arts best known for her roles such as Golden Swallow (‘Come Drink With Me’), Madam Wah (‘The Flirting Scholar’), and Jade Fox (‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’). She was a versatile, award-winning actress whose film and television career spanned six decades, not only in Asia but internationally as well in roles such as “Junn” (‘Lilting’), “Maria Wang” (‘Meditation Park’), and “The Matchmaker” (‘Mulan’),” said a statement from her family.
“She loved being an actress and knew, even with her hard work, how fortunate she was to have the career she had. Our mom remained humble and approachable, patient and kind, and always generous with her time, eager to help others whenever she could. She will be dearly missed.”
In 2019, Cheng was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative, atypical parkinsonism syndrome – unofficially, Corticobasal degeneration (CBD). It is a rare disease with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease, however, current treatments could not slow the progression. She chose not to make this diagnosis public, dealing with her condition in private and spending her remaining time with her four children (Eugenia, Jennifer, Harry and Marsha) and her grandchildren, the family explained. In lieu of flowers, Cheng requested that donations be made to the Brain Support Network (BSN) where her brain was donated.
