Jacqueline Chan, the Chinese Trinidadian actor who rose to fame with the stage and screen versions of The World of Suzie Wong and became a regular on British television, has died at the age of 91.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Chan was the daughter of Emily (nee Woon-Sam) and Isaac Chan, a photographer who performed as an acrobat in his youth. After leaving Bishop Anstey high school at 16, she moved to England for two years of classical training at Elmhurst ballet school in Camberley, Surrey. Planning to become a ballet teacher, she continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Dance in London. However, she left after the first year to take a job as a principal dancer in Goody Two Shoes at the Theatre Royal, Windsor (1953-54).
Chan made her acting debut in The Teahouse of the August Moon (Her Majesty's theatre, 1954-56), playing a member of the Ladies' League for Democratic Action. She later danced in Kismet (Stoll theatre, 1956), The King and I on tour (1956-57), and Simply Heavenly (Adelphi theatre, 1958).
Breakthrough with 'The World of Suzie Wong'
Chan first appeared in The World of Suzie Wong as Lily, a small part, during the first year of its London stage run at the Prince of Wales theatre (1959-61). In December 1959, she took over the lead role of Suzie Wong, a Chinese sex worker in Hong Kong having a relationship with an English artist, after Tsai Chin fell ill with laryngitis.
In 1960, she appeared in the film version as Gwennie Lee, one of the 'Wan Chai girls' alongside Nancy Kwan. Chan later repeated the lead role on an Australian tour in 1961, where one critic noted: 'Jacqui Chan, an artist of extraordinary talent, gives the part of Suzie Wong a delicate and moving dignity which deepens the play's effect greatly.'
Relationship with Antony Armstrong-Jones
In 1960, Chan hit the headlines when Princess Margaret became engaged to photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones (later Lord Snowdon). His pictures of Chan had been published worldwide, and newspapers described her as his 'good friend' and 'favourite model'. In fact, she was an early girlfriend of the photographer. They met through a friend in 1955, and one of his first pictures of her showed her turning the heads of soldiers in Venice. 'I did quite a few modelling jobs for him – I wasn't just his girlfriend,' Chan told the author in 2024. 'He quite liked my look.'
She attended his wedding to Princess Margaret in 1960; according to Chan, Armstrong-Jones arranged a car for her, and she slipped through a side door into the abbey. In 2017, their relationship was depicted in a graphic scene for the TV series The Crown, with Chan played by Alice Hewkin.
Television and Film Career
Chan's first significant television role came in Giles Cooper's play Without the Grail (1960), playing a Communist supporter whose father, the owner of an Assam tea plantation played by Michael Hordern, is investigated by an agent (Sean Connery) for his feudal attitudes as an employer.
She was cast alongside Hollywood royalty as Lotos, one of the Egyptian queen's handmaidens, in the 1963 film Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Regular television work followed over the next 20 years with appearances in popular series such as The Saint (1964), Emergency – Ward 10 (1966), The Main Chance (1972), and Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983). She also played the Japanese pearl diver Toshi, a victim of the erupting volcano, in the film Krakatoa: East of Java (1968).
Later Career and Advocacy
Chan continued to appear on TV and in films into her 90s. 'In my younger days, there weren't interesting parts for Chinese women,' she said in 2024. 'We were offered a lot of prostitutes and people who couldn't speak English properly. I used to say to myself, 'I'm not doing any parts where I have to say 'flied lice' instead of 'fried rice'.' If I felt they were demeaning to my race, I wouldn't do it.'
She held firm to that rule when she appeared in the film comedy Peggy Su! (1997), written by Kevin Wong. Other film roles included Mamma Li in Wake of Death (2004), a shady Chinese restaurant owner in Moving Parts (2017), and a jewellery shop assistant in Cruella (2021). On television, she played Shakana, Kaidu's mother, in the second series of Marco Polo (2016).
Stage roles included Madame Aung in Plenty (Albery theatre, 1999), Mother Cai in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Snow in Midsummer (2017), and Molly in Alan Bennett's Allelujah! (Bridge theatre, London, 2018).
Chan co-founded the multicultural Pan Cultural Performance Project (now Pan Intercultural Arts) in 1986 and Chinese Arts Link in 1998, through which she toured her own one-woman shows, described as 'storytelling with voice and movement'.
Her last screen role was a small part in the film Supergirl, due for release in 2025.
Chan is survived by her daughters from her marriage to actor and director David Saire (born David Salamon), whom she married in 1962 and separated from in 1979 (divorcing 10 years later), Abigail and Jaspa; her grandchildren, Jeffrey and Garance; and a brother, Ian.
