Has an Asian ever won for best Oscar?
Posted by Nell Gwyn (Member # 8291) on :
Not sure about Oscars off the top of my head, but Lea Salonga won a Tony award for Best Actress in a Musical for Miss Saigon back in '88 (I think that's the right year).
Interesting question...I'm intrigued.
*goes off to google*
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
You mean Best Actor/Actress? Or any Oscar?
Chinese:
Ang Lee: Best Director
Jessica Yu Best documentary short 1997 Breathing Lessons.
James Wong Howe twice for Cinematography.
Japanese: Miyoshi Umeki in 1957 for Best Supporting Actress in Sayonara,
Cambodian:
Haing Ngor in 1984 for Best Supporting Actor in Killing Fields.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
DB Wong won a Tony for M Butterfly. I think that might actually be better than an Oscar.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Any for best lead actor? Oscar firsts make me so mad.
Posted by Nell Gwyn (Member # 8291) on :
And here are the fruit of my labors:
1957 - Miyoshi Umeki won Best Supporting Actress for Sayonara
1982 - Ben Kingsley won Best Actor for Gandhi. (He's half-Indian, which was a surprise to me. He doesn't look particularly Asian, but I'll count him anyway. )
And that's all that I found. There were several others who were nominated, but those were the only wins in the acting category.
Edit: Darn it, Kayla beat me!
I don't know that I'd agree that a Tony is better than an Oscar - I think the value of both awards has kinda gone downhill lately.
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
Well, he won in 1988. That's almost 20 years ago. And he's fabulous. Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
syn, then no. No Lead Actor or Actress Awards.
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
Except for half of Ben Kingsley. At least he was playing an asian role.
Posted by Nell Gwyn (Member # 8291) on :
Kayla:
That I can agree with. I have a lot more respect for Tonys won 15-20+ years ago than in the past few years.
And I looked up the Miss Saigon dates - it was 1991, oops. For some reason I thought it was a bit sooner after Les Miserables than that.
Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
A random answer: Fish sticks.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
A random rebuttal of the random answer: Bessmer converters. On the moon.
Posted by Nell Gwyn (Member # 8291) on :
We do have Memoirs of a Geisha this year, though. I haven't seen it yet, but the trailer looks really good. It'll probably get some nominations at least, maybe more.
Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
A random riposte of the random rebuttal: Blue, in your pants
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