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Irene Tsu (born November 4, 1944〔〔) is a Chinese American actress who started in the film adaptation Flower Drum Song in 1961 and has had many subsequent roles in TV and films. She was featured playing the wiki wiki girl in the ''Wiki wiki dollar'' advertising campaign for Chevron Corporation in the 1960s. She speaks English and three different varieties of Chinese. == Early life and career == Tsu was born in Shanghai, China to Z.M. and Dulcie Lynn Tsu.〔Cf. Lisanti (2001), p.158〕 Her father was a banker and her mother a painter. After political changes in China in the 1940s, the family left for Taiwan, then Hong Kong. Her father remained behind in Taiwan while in 1957 she and the rest of her immediate family (sister and mother) emigrated to Larchmont, New York, a suburb of New York City, where her aunt lived. Irene attended Mamaroneck Elementary School in Mamaroneck, New York and studied ballet. In the late 1950s. she auditioned for a dancing job in Broadway's Flower Drum Song. A staff member of the producer David Merrick's office saw the performance and auditioned her for the Broadway musical "The World of Suzie Wong" and Tsu got a part. Later Irene auditioned for choreographer Hermes Pan in the upcoming film adaptation of the musical Flower Drum Song.〔("Profile: Irene Tsu" ), ''Glamor Girls of the Silver Screen'', website〕 The choreographer Hermes Pan brought Irene to Hollywood and she was a teenage dancer in the film Flower Drum Song (1961), directed by Henry Koster.〔 He gave her her first speaking role as a teenage prostitute in his next film, ''Take Her, She's Mine'' (1963) starring James Stewart and Sandra Dee, which started her acting career. She studied acting with Ned Maderino, Lee Strasberg and Peggy Feury 〔 and attended Los Angeles City College,〔 UCLA Film School, and California State University, Los Angeles.〔(Realtor: Irene Tsu ) - webpage〕 In 1961, Tsu entered the Miss Chinatown USA beauty pageant on behalf of New York and won first place. On November 21, 1963, the evening before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Tsu's only appearance on ''Perry Mason'' was aired on CBS, as she played the role of defendant Juli Eng in "The Case of the Floating Stones." She made guest appearances on most of the other popular '60s-70s television shows such as ''I Spy'', ''The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'', ''Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'', "Mission Impossible" and ''The Wild Wild West''. She was tested for, but didn't get the female lead of ''The Sand Pebbles''.〔Lisanti, Tom, ("How Actress Irene Tsu Lost the Female Lead in The Sandpebbles" ), ''cinemaretro.com''〕 In the 1960s, Tsu met Frank Sinatra in Miami, Florida where she was filming the "Chevron Island" commercials and Sinatra was filming "Tony Rome". They dated for over two years. Tsu later married director Ivan Nagy in 1971.〔〔Beck, Marilyn, ("Hollywood Hotline: Frank Sinatra Works on TV Special and Off-Beat Movie" ), Friday, September 26, 1969〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Irene Tsu」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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