Gong Li

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Gong Li
Gong Li in Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
Born	December 31, 1965 (age 40) Shenyang, Liaoning, China
Other name(s)	Li Gong
Notable roles	Jiu'er in Red Sorghum Juxian in Farewell My Concubine Hatsumomo in Memoirs of a Geisha

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Gong

Gong Li (Simplified Chinese: 巩俐; Traditional Chinese: 鞏俐; pinyin: Gǒng Lì) (born December 31, 1965) is a Chinese film actress. She first came into international prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou.

1 Career
2 Filmography
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] Career

Born on New Year's Eve, 1965, in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, she has appeared in most films directed by Zhang Yimou up until 1995.

She grew up in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province. She knew from a young age that she wanted to be an actress, and at school she excelled at singing and dancing almost to the exclusion of other subjects. In spite of failing her college exam twice, she was eventually accepted to the Beijing Central College of Drama in 1985 and graduated in 1989 (see [1]).

She was still a student there when Zhang Yimou chose her in 1987 for the lead role in his first film as a director, Red Sorghum, which was awarded the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Gong Li has since become one of the most successful actresses in Chinese cinema, with fame that has extended abroad to many areas. Her work has been recognized with awards from the Venice International Film Festival and New York Film Critics Circle, and she retains a strong popularity.

In addition to acting, she is also an exceptional singer, as demonstrated during her performance in Shanghai Triad. She was also presented the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in June 1998.

She starred in Zhang Yimou's films well into the mid-1990s. During their long collaboration, the two created a scandal for being long-term lovers, despite Zhang's marital status. The duo eventually broke up in 1995, and Gong Li married Singaporean tobacco tycoon Ooi Hoe Soeng the next year.

Gong Li's limited Hollywood appearances include 1997's Chinese Box, and expanded with 2005's Memoirs of a Geisha, in which she spoke English fluently, and she, in the words of Time Magazine film critic Richard Corliss, was "gloriously channeling Bette Davis" [2]. She also appears in the 2006 released film adaptation of Miami Vice.

She is also expected to team up with Zhang Yimou one more time in the upcoming Autumn Remembrance as well as starring in Hannibal Rising, the prequel to the other three Hannibal Lecter films.

In 2006, Premiere ranked her performance in Farewell My Concubine as the 89th greatest performance of all time.