Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
name	Ling Woo
series	Ally McBeal
portrayer	Lucy Liu
occupation	Judge, Commonwealth of MassachusettsOf Counsel, Cage & Fish }}

Ling Woo is a fictional character in the US comedy-drama ''Ally McBeal'', portrayed by American actress Lucy Liu. Ling was a cold and ferocious Chinese American lawyer who spoke Mandarin and was knowledgeable in the art of sexual pleasure unknown to the Western world. Unlike the 1970s depictions of docile East Asian women on TV, Ling's character was the opposite, the classic stereotype of the Dragon Lady. At the time, she was the only significant representative of Asian women on television (besides news anchors and reporters), leaving no one else to counteract this prominent stereotype. Thus, the portrayal of Ling Woo attracted much scholarly attention.

Background

''Ally McBeal'' is an American television series created by David E. Kelley which ran on the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. Set in the fictional Boston law firm of Cage, Fish and Associates, the series explores the relationships among various lawyers working at the firm, often as they relate to gender specific issues raised in court cases. Ling Woo was a character written by Kelley specifically for actress Lucy Liu after she failed to secure the role of Nelle Porter in the show.

Woo appeared for the first time in the second season as a client suing a Howard Stern-like talk show host named Wick. She was suing Wick because his programs contributed to sexual harassment in her workplace. Wick claimed Ling brought suit because she had a "slutty little Asian thing going", and Ling said that she wanted to sleep with Wick because if she did, she would kill him. The character proved to be a hit, and Liu was signed on as a regular for the series.

Ling became a lawyer with the firm by pressuring Richard Fish, the firm's senior partner, to hire her services as counsel. She remained a regular on the show until 2001, when her role was reduced to four episodes in the upcoming season. Ling's employment history changes that season when the Governor of Massachusetts offers Ling a job as judge after Ling complimented her twin babies. Woo is a graduate of Cornell Law School where she was editor of Law Review.

At the time, she was the most famous and only significant representative of Asian women on television (besides news anchors and reporters). In the 1990s, Asian women were rarely given prominent roles on television. For example, in 1994 Margaret Cho had a brief prime-time show called ''All American Girl'', which was not popular with audiences and did not even last a full season. When the show aired, there had not been another Asian-American-centered show or an Asian main character at the time the Ling character was created. She remains the most memorable Asian TV character of the 1990s.

W

Character

"Blunt, rude, crude, and secure", Ling Woo is the antithesis of Ally McBeal. For example, Woo is portrayed as evil, McBeal as good; Woo growls, McBeal purrs. In one episode, McBeal literally floats on air due to happiness. When Woo walks into the room, McBeal is plunged from her ethereal, angelic state. Her verbal assaults presents a fantasy of authority that appeals to even McBeal. "She's my hero", says McBeal, "she's vicious, I disagree with almost everything she says, she treats me like dirt, and somehow she's my hero."

The character's main function was to inject into the show "sensuality, promise, terror, sublimity, idyllic pleasure, intense energy" - elements long associated with the Orient in Western culture, according to Orientalism author Edward Said. Ling brings to mind "the dragon lady, the geisha, and the inscrutable Oriental". Describing her as "fearsome, devouring, vicious, cool," and with an "exotic sexuality", Georgia State University professor Greg Smith sees Woo as a stereotype of Asian Women, a "Dragon Lady".

Her character was frequently used to examine matters related to gender definition and topics. Ling is the only major character in ''Ally Mcbeal'' who does not have a story for the origin of her particular neurosis. She is exempt from the psychoanalytic focus given to others in the series, which Smith attributes simply to her Asian "mysteriousness".

Cold and vicious

Woo is cast as a villain, underscored by her frequent appearance to the theme music that accompanied the Wicked Witch of the West in the ''Wizard of Oz'', although this device was dropped entirely by the end of the first season Woo appeared on the show. Unlike a melodramatic villain such as J. R. Ewing or an unrepentant buffoon like Archie Bunker, Ling is cast as a remarkably heartless character until well into the second season she appears (Season 3 of the show), when she begins to befriend the other characters.

She harasses people with physical handicaps. When visiting a hospital, Ling accidentally collides with a man in a wheelchair, and shouts, "Watch where you are going! It's bad enough that you people get all the parking spots!" To an individual with Tourette syndrome, she says, "I think Tourettes is so cool. It would be great to be able to annoy people like that. You get to woop and twitch. Any other good ones?" A passing blind man accidentally taps her with his cane, and Ling cries, "OW! They're not weapons!..I so prefer the deaf to the blind." Ling will even impersonate the blind to get her way. In one episode she puts on sunglasses, extends a telescoping white cane, and walks across a busy street, tires squealing as she hits a couple of cars with her cane. Ling is unapologetic for these affronts. When pointed out that "there are real blind people in the world", Ling retorts, "It's not like any of them saw me."

Ling is concerned with petty annoyances that disrupt her pleasure or inconvenience her. When a colleague is stuck in an elevator with his feet dangling out of the doors, Ling asks, "Does this mean I'm going to have to take the stairs?" She is impatient in getting what she wants, for example snapping at a judge to "hurry up" as he read a verdict. She frequently announces that she is uninterested in proceedings that don't affect her personally. As her co-counsel questions a witness in court, Ling objects to the judge, "I'm bored! As an officer of the court, I have a duty to be open and forthright. I think the witness is tedious and I'm concerned for the jury's attention span."

Smith sees Ling's attacks as pointed and consciously vicious. She attacks because her words have consequences, clearing a path for her own selfish interests. Nelle Porter says, "I admire the way you don't let yourself be pushed around. Too many people when they think they've been wronged just walk away." Jeff Yang, founding publisher of ''A Magazine'', a New York-based publication on Asian American culture, sees Ling as "a strong Asian woman who's clearly potent, clearly has control. She's not a victim, not somebody who lets anyone come even close to victimizing her."

Even though she coldly tyrannizes virtually everyone around her, she is sometimes hurt and confused over being disliked. She admits, "It's lonely on the bench. I thought I'd like a place where people can't get to you but once in a while..." A colleague completes her thought: "you need to have somebody who can get to you." During Season 2 it is seen that Ling is not completely cold, but prefers to keep her emotions hidden. In "Angels and Blimps", she maintains a facade of cold in front of Ally and Greg when their young client dies from leukemia, but is seeing sobbing as she exits the hospital (she also commmits a secret act of kindness to restore Ally's belief in God). It is not until Woo's second season (Season 3 of the show) that she begins to show attributes of friendship and vulnerability to others.

Hypersexual

University of Wyoming Associate Professor Tracey Patton sees Woo as the embodiment of the Asian fantasy woman, the seductive temptress expert in eroticism who is knowledgeable in the art of sexual pleasure unknown to the Western world. In one episode, she agreed to have sex only after her partner signed a health waiver and confidentiality agreement to protect her sexual secrets. In another episode, Ling is hired by Richard Fish as an attorney in his firm, in exchange for sexual favors. Ling's sexual foreplay with Richard Fish included sucking his fingers, dropping hot wax on him, and performing a "hair-tickling massage" on his bare chest. "What she offered was not too far from an Oriental massage - hair splayed across his chest, his stricken face, the whole interracial thing", said Yang. "It's clearly something that plays off so many deep-seated fantasies about Asian American women."

Ling's attitude to sex is cold and uninterested. While depicted as a sexual predator, she nonetheless "doesn't like sex; it's messy" "and overrated". She is able to keep her boyfriend interested without having to have intercourse with him because she does not like sweat. To Ling, according to Smith, sex is just another arena for her to exert control. To her, "Sex is a weapon", and "a woman hasn't got true control of a man until her hand is on the dumb stick". She enjoys using the weapon, as she says "there's nothing I enjoy more than seeing a happy couple and coming between them." As with the "vicious" personality, most of this hyper-sexuality is gone by Season 3 (Woo's second season on the show).

Darrell Hamamoto, Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis, describes Ling is as "a neo-Orientalist masturbatory fantasy figure concocted by a white man whose job it is to satisfy the blocked needs of other white men who seek temporary escape from their banal and deadening lives by indulging themselves in a bit of visual cunnilingus while relaxing on the sofa."

Her liaisons are with white men, but not only men. In a dream sequence of Ally McBeal's in which the two of them go on a date, they kiss on screen. The kiss was shot in profile, locked lips clearly visible, rather than using the normal angle for same-sex kisses, in which the partner's head blocks the view of the actual contact. The scene was considered so racy that the episode was banned from being shown in Singapore. The episode won its time slot among young adult viewers during its showing in the November 1999 sweeps, even beating ''Monday Night Football''. Ling made the "damn hot kiss" even hotter because "she's the exotic, erotic experimenter of the group", according to Scott Seomin, media director at that time for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Alien

Patton sees Woo's actions, attitudes, and portrayal of the evil manipulator make her into the alien of the law firm, and as such many of the lawyers in the firm did not want her hired. Campbell, a Euro-American male at the firm stated, "With her as a lawyer, the whole thing (the dynamic make-up of the firm) will change." Not only is her non-White presence questioned but her competency too. Even though she was the law review editor in law school, the presumption was she got the job mainly because Fish could not say no to Woo and her sexual promises. Woo is seen as an unwelcome addition to the law team despite her expertise and her success in law school.

Her character is the one most often portrayed on the show using animal effects. She frequently responds with a range of animal growls and snarls and breathes fire like a literal manifestation of dragon lady. Smith sees this as reinforcing the bestial undertone of the Asian stereotype, making her appear inhuman. Ling herself admits, "It must be hard being human. I wouldn't know. I never tried it."

In one episode, Woo literally turned into an alien, reminiscent of a scene from the movie ''Alien''. Woo's transformation into an alien was a reference on her not fitting in with the other lawyers as well as a reference on her citizenship. Patton points out that the assumption is often made that a second-generation White immigrant is an American citizen, but that same assumption is not granted to non-Whites - in this case, Woo. Woo is not constructed as American (because an American is constructed as White), nor is she constructed as human. Woo, the only non-Euro-American member of the law firm, is constructed and seen as foreign or alien.

Ling is not above using her ethnicity as a means of gaining advantage. In one episode, as she delivers her closing arguments to a jury, she says "There's a very old expression in China," and then begins to speak in Chinese. In the subtitles we see her saying, "It really doesn't matter what I say here, because none of you speak Chinese. But you can see from my sad face I'm sympathetic. You hear from my tone it's appropriate to feel sorry for me. As I drop to a faint whisper (which she does), you'll feel the sorrow yourself. I'm going to finish now, pretend to cry", which she does as she walks off.

See also

Asian fetish

Femme fatale

Stereotypes of East and Southeast Asians

References

Category:Ally McBeal characters Category:Fictional American people of Chinese descent Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1997 Category:Fictional judges

nl:Ling Woo

Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
name	Fred Korematsu
alt	Photo of Fred Korematsu
birth date	January 30, 1919
birth place	Oakland, California
death date	March 30, 2005
death place	Marin County, California
death cause	Respiratory failure
resting place	Mountain View Cemetery
resting place coordinates
monuments	Fred T. Korematsu Elementary School in Davis Fred T. Korematsu Campus of San Leandro High School Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy in Oakland
residence	Topaz War Relocation Center Salt Lake City, Utah Detroit, Michigan
nationality	American
ethnicity	Japanese-American
citizenship	United States
education	High School
alma mater	Castlemont High School
children	2 (1 daughter, 1 son)
awards	Presidential Medal of Freedom
footnotes	}}

was one of the many Japanese-American citizens living on the West Coast during World War II. Shortly after the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the Secretary of War and his military commanders to require all Japanese Americans be removed from designated "military areas" and placed in internment camps. When such orders were issued for the West Coast, Korematsu instead became a fugitive. The legality of the internment order was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in ''Korematsu v. United States'', but Korematsu's conviction was overturned decades later after the disclosure of new evidence, challenging the necessity of the Japanese internment, which had been withheld from the courts by the U.S. government during the war.

To commemorate his journey as a civil rights activist, the "Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution" was observed for first time on January 30, 2011, by the state of California, and first such commemoration for an Asian American in the US.

Biography

Early life

Fred Korematsu was born in Oakland, California in 1919, the third of four sons to Japanese parents who immigrated to the United States in 1905. Fred resided continuously in Oakland from his birth until the time of his arrest. He attended public schools, participated in the Castlemont High School tennis and swim teams, and worked in his family's flower nursery in nearby San Leandro, California. He encountered racism in high school when an army recruiting officer was handing out recruiting flyers to Korematsu’s non-Japanese friends. The officer told Korematsu, “We have orders not to accept you.” Even his girlfriend, Ida Boitano’s Italian parents felt that people of Japanese descent were inferior and unfit to mix with white people.

World War II

Korematsu was rejected by the U.S. Navy when called for military duty under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, due to stomach ulcers. Instead, he trained to become a welder in order to contribute his services to the defense effort. First, he worked as a welder at a shipyard. He went in one day to find his timecard missing; his coworkers hastily explained to him that he was Japanese so therefore he was not allowed to work there. He then found a new job, but was fired after one week when his supervisor, who had just returned from an extended vacation, found that there was a “Jap” working at his business. in preparation for their eventual evacuation to detention camps. He underwent plastic surgery on his eyelids in the unsuccessful hope of passing as a Caucasian, changed his name to Clyde Sarah, and claimed to be of Spanish and Hawaiian heritage.

When on May 3, 1942, General DeWitt ordered Japanese Americans to report on May 9 to Assembly Centers as a prelude to being removed to the camps, Korematsu refused and went into hiding in the Oakland area. He was arrested on a street corner in San Leandro on May 30, 1942, after being recognized as a "Jap". He was held at a jail in San Francisco, Shortly after Korematsu's arrest, Ernest Besig, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union in northern California asked him if he would be willing to use his case to test the legality of the Japanese American internment. Korematsu agreed, and was assigned civil rights attorney Wayne M. Collins. The American Civil Liberties Union in fact argued for Ernest Besig not to fight Korematsu’s case, since many high-ranking members of the ACLU were close to Franklin Roosevelt, and the ACLU didn’t want to be perceived badly in time of war. Besig decided to take Korematsu's case in spite of this. Korematsu felt that “people should have a fair trial and a chance to defend their loyalty at court in a democratic way, because in this situation, people were placed in imprisonment without any fair trial.” On June 12, 1942 Korematsu had his trial date and was given $5,000 bail ($ today). After Fred's arraignment June 18, 1942, Besig posted bail and he and Fred tried to leave. When met by Military Police, Besig told Fred to go with them. The Military Police took Fred to the Presidio. Korematsu was tried and convicted in federal court on September 8, 1942, for a violation of Public Law No. 503, which criminalized the violations of military orders issued under the authority of Executive Order 9066, and was placed on five years' probation. He was taken from the courtroom and returned to the Tanforan Assembly Center, and thereafter he and his family were placed in the Central Utah War Relocation Center situated at Topaz, Utah. As an unskilled laborer, he was eligible to receive only $12 per month ($ today) for working eight hours per day at the camp. He was placed in a horse stall with one light bulb, and he later remarked that “jail was better than this.”

While hailed by some, others criticized Korematsu's actions. Many Japanese residents living on the West Coast cooperated with the government internment order, hoping to prove their loyalty as Americans, including members of the Japanese American Citizens League. Korematsu was thus disdained for his opposition to government order and was seen as a threat in the eyes of other Japanese and Japanese Americans. When Korematsu’s family was moved to the internment camp in Topaz, Utah, he would later describe feeling isolated because people recognized him and felt that if they talked to him, they would also be seen as troublemakers.

Korematsu then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals. They granted review on March 27, 1943, but upheld the original verdict on January 7, 1944. He appealed again and brought his case to the United States Supreme Court, which granted review on March 27, 1944. On December 18, 1944, in a 6-3 decision, authored by Justice Black, the Court held that compulsory exclusion, though constitutionally suspect, is justified during circumstances of "emergency and peril". (See ''Korematsu v. United States'' for more information.)

However, the Court also decided ''Ex parte Endo'' in December 1944, granting Mitsuye Endo her liberty from the camps because the Department of Justice and War Relocation Authority conceded that Endo was a "loyal and law-abiding citizen" and that no authority existed for detaining loyal citizens longer than necessary to separate the loyal from the disloyal. Endo's case did not address the question of whether the initial removal itself was constitutional, as did Korematsu's case.

Later life and compensation

After release from camp, Korematsu had to move east, as the law would not allow a move back westward. He moved to Salt Lake City, Utah where he continued to fight racism. He still knew there were inequalities amongst the Japanese, as he experienced these inequalities in his everyday life. He found work repairing water tanks in Salt Lake City, but after three months on the job, he discovered he was being paid half of what his white coworkers were being paid. He told his boss that this was unfair and asked to be paid the same amount, but his boss only threatened to call the police and try to get Korematsu arrested for being Japanese, so he left his job. After this incident, Korematsu lost hope, remaining quiet for over thirty years. His own daughter did not find out about what her father did until she was in high school. Peter Irons said that Korematsu “felt responsible for the internment in a sort of backhanded way, because his case had been lost in the Supreme Court.” He moved to Detroit, Michigan, where his younger brother lived, and here he worked as a draftsman until 1949. He met a Caucasian woman and married her circa 1946–1947 in Detroit, where mixed race marriage was legal at the time. He soon visited the Oakland area again with her, and after his bride fell ill, they resettled there. His daughter was born in 1950, and a son in 1954.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed a special commission to investigate the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The commission concluded that the decisions to remove those of Japanese ancestry to prison camps occurred because of "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership". In 1988, Congress apologized and granted personal compensation of $20,000 to each surviving prisoner.

In the early 1980s, while researching a book on internment cases, lawyer and University of California, San Diego professor Peter Irons came across evidence that Charles Fahy, the Solicitor General of the United States who argued ''Korematsu v. United States'' before the Supreme Court, had deliberately suppressed reports from the FBI and military intelligence which concluded that Japanese-American citizens posed no security risk. These documents revealed that the military had lied to the Supreme Court, and that government lawyers had willingly made false arguments. Irons concluded that the Supreme Court’s decision was invalid since it was based on unsubstantiated facts, distortions, and misrepresentations. Along with a team of lawyers headed by Dale Minami, Irons petitioned for writs of error ''coram nobis'' with the federal courts, seeking to overturn Korematsu's conviction.

On November 10, 1983, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of U.S. District Court in San Francisco formally vacated the conviction. Korematsu stood in front of US District Judge Marilyn Patel and said, “I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color.” He also said, “If anyone should do any pardoning, I should be the one pardoning the government for what they did to the Japanese-American people.” Peter Irons described Korematsu’s ending statement during the case as the most powerful statement he’d ever heard from anyone. He related the statement as being as empowering as Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Judge Patel’s ruling cleared Korematsu’s name, but did not overturn the Supreme Court’s decision.

President Bill Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, to Korematsu in 1998, saying, "In the long history of our country's constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls. Plessy, Brown, Parks ... to that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu." That year Korematsu served as the Grand Marshal of San Francisco's annual Cherry Blossom Festival parade.

A member and Elder of First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, Korematsu was twice President of San Leandro Lions Club, and for 15 years a volunteer with Boy Scouts of America, San Francisco Bay Council.

Korematsu spoke out after September 11, 2001 and how the United States government must not let the same thing happen to people of Middle-Eastern descent as what happened to Japanese Americans. When prisoners were detained at Guantanamo Bay for too long of a period, in Korematsu’s opinion, he filed two amicus briefs with the Supreme Court and warned them not to repeat the mistakes of the Japanese internment. He wrote his first Amicus Curiae in October 2003 for two cases appealed before the Supreme Court of the United States, Shafiq Rasul, v. George W. Bush and Khaled A.F. Al Odah v. United States of America. Attorneys Arturo J. Gonzalez and Sylvia M. Sokol of Morrison & Foerster LLP and Jon B. Streeter and Eumi K. Lee of Keker & Van Nest LLP worked on the Amicus Curiae. In the Amicus Curiae, Korematsu warned the Supreme Court that the restriction of civil liberties can never be justified, and had never been justified in the history of the United States. Furthemore Korematsu provided examples of specific cases in American history in which the government exceeded constitutional authority, such as the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and the Japanese Internment of World War II. Korematsu thus reacted critically of the United States government who imprisoned detainees in Guantanamo Bay by restricting their civil liberties albeit in a time of, according to the respondent, “military necessity.” Similarly in his second Amicus Curiae, written April 2004 with the Bar Association of San Francisco, the Asian Law Caucus, the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, and the Japanese American Citizens League, Korematsu responded to Donald Rumself v. Jose Padilla. The following attorneys worked on the Amicus Curiae: Geoffrey R. Stone, Dale Minami of Minami, Lew, and Tamaki LLP, Eric K. Yamamoto, Stephen J. Schulhofer of the Brennan Center for Justice, and Evan R. Chesler of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. The Amici Curiae’s statement of interest emphasized the similarity of the unlawful detainment between Fred Korematsu during World War II and that of Jose Padilla following the events of 9/11, and warned the American government of repeating their mistakes of the past. He believed that “full vindication for the Japanese-Americans will arrive only when we learn that, even in times of crisis; we must guard against prejudice and keep uppermost our commitment to law and justice.” From 2001 until his death, Korematsu served on the Constitution Project's bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee. Discussing racial profiling in 2004, he warned, "No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese Americans, then these are very dangerous times for our democracy."

Fred Korematsu died of respiratory failure at his daughter's home in Marin County, California on March 30, 2005. One of the last things Korematsu said was, “I'll never forget my government treating me like this. And I really hope that this will never happen to anybody else because of the way they look, if they look like the enemy of our country”. He also urged others to, “protest, but not with violence, and don’t be afraid to speak up. One person can make a difference, even if it takes forty years.” Korematsu was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery.

On May 24, 2011, U.S. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal delivered the keynote speech at the Department of Justice's Great Hall marking Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Developing comments he had posted officially on May 20, Katyal issued the Justice Department's first public confession of its 1942 ethics lapse. He cited the Korematsu case and the similar precedent of Gordon Hirabayashi as blots on the reputation of the Office of the Solicitor General as meriting "special credence" when pleading cases before the Supreme Court, and "an important reminder" of the need for absolute candor in arguing the United States government's position on every case.

Legacy

Fred T. Korematsu Elementary School at Mace Ranch in Davis, California is named for Korematsu.

The freshman campus of San Leandro High School is named Fred T. Korematsu Campus in respect to Korematsu.

The Discovery Academy elementary school in Oakland, California, was renamed Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy.

In 1988, a street in San Jose, California was renamed Korematsu Court.

There is a Korematsu bronze relief in front of the San Jose Federal Building.

Awards in his name include the American Muslim Voices Korematsu Civil Rights Award.

On September 23, 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California signed into law a bill that designates January 30 of each year as the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution., a first for an Asian American in the US. It was observed for the first time on January 30, 2011. The main celebration of the California state was held at the Wheeler Auditorium on the UC Berkeley campus, sponsored by the Korematsu Institute, a non-profit program co-founded by Korematsu's daughter and the Asian Law Caucus, a San Francisco-based civil rights organization. The event included presentations by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a screening of the Emmy Award-winning film "Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story."

See also

Gordon Hirabayashi

Minoru Yasui

Japanese American internment

References

Further reading

Category:1919 births Category:2005 deaths Category:American activists Category:American people of Japanese descent Category:Japanese-American civil rights activists Category:Japanese-American internees Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:People from Oakland, California

fr:Fred Korematsu ja:フレッド・コレマツ

Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
name	Calista Flockhart
birth name	Calista Kay Flockhart
birth date	November 11, 1964
birth place	Freeport, Illinois, U.S.
occupation	Actress
years active	1989–present
spouse	Harrison Ford (2010–present)
website	}}

Calista Kay Flockhart (born November 11, 1964) is an American actress who is primarily recognized for her work in television. She is best known for playing the title character in the Fox comedy-drama series ''Ally McBeal'' for which she won a Golden Globe Award. She starred as Sally Field’s character’s daughter, Kitty Walker McCallister, on the ABC drama, ''Brothers & Sisters''.

Early life

Flockhart was born in Freeport, Illinois, the daughter of Kay, a teacher of English, and Ronald Flockhart, an executive for Kraft Foods. Her parents are retired and live in Morristown, Tennessee. She has one older brother, Gary. Her mother, Kay Calista, reversed her own first and middle names in naming her Calista Kay. Calista also had a great-grandmother named "Calista".

Because her father's job required the family to move often, Flockhart and her brother grew up in different places including Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Norwich, New York. As a child, she wrote a play called ''Toyland'' in which she performed to a small audience at a dinner party.

Flockhart attended Shawnee High School in Medford Township, New Jersey. Following her graduation in 1983, Flockhart attended the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. While there, she attended a specialized and competitive class, lasting from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM. In her sophomore year at Rutgers, Flockhart met aspiring actress Jane Krakowski, the best friend of her roommate. Later they would both work together on ''Ally McBeal''.

Flockhart's acting ability was recognized when William Esper (Mason Gross' theatre director and Flockhart's acting teacher) made an exception to policy by allowing Flockhart to perform on the main stage. Though this venue is usually reserved for juniors and seniors, Harold Scott insisted that Flockhart perform there in his production of William Inge's ''Picnic''. Flockhart graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theatre in 1988, as one of only a few students who successfully completed the course. She was inducted into the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni on May 3, 2003.

After receiving her degree, Flockhart moved to New York City in 1989, where she remained until 1997, living with three other women in a two-bedroom apartment and working as a waitress and aerobics instructor, while she simultaneously sought auditions.

Career

Early career

In spring 1989, Flockhart made her first television appearance in a minor role in an episode of ''Guiding Light'' as a babysitter. She made her professional debut on the New York stage, appearing in ''Beside Herself'' alongside Melissa Joan Hart, at the Circle Repertory Theatre. Two years later, Flockhart appeared in the television movie ''Darrow''. Though she later appeared in films ''Naked in New York'' (1993) and ''Getting In'' (1994), her first substantial speaking part in a film was in ''Quiz Show'', directed by Robert Redford.

Flockhart debuted on Broadway in 1994, as Laura in ''The Glass Menagerie''. Actress Julie Harris felt Flockhart should be hired without further auditions, claiming that she seemed ideal for the part. Flockhart received a Clarence Derwent Award for her performance. In 1995, Flockhart became acquainted with actors such as Dianne Wiest and Faye Dunaway when she appeared in the movie ''Drunks''. Later that year, Flockhart starred in ''Jane Doe'' as a drug addict. In 1996, Flockhart appeared as the daughter of Dianne Wiest and Gene Hackman's characters in ''The Birdcage''. Throughout that year, she continued to work on Broadway, playing the role of Natasha in Anton Chekhov's ''Three Sisters''.

''Ally McBeal''

In 1997 Flockhart was requested to audition for the starring role in David E. Kelley's Fox television series, ''Ally McBeal''. Kelley, having heard of Flockhart, wanted her to audition for the contract part. Though Flockhart at first hesitated due to the necessary commitment to the show in a negotiable contract, she was swayed by the script and traveled to Los Angeles to audition for the part, which she won. She earned a Golden Globe Award for the role in 1998. Flockhart also appeared on the June 29, 1998, cover of ''Time'' magazine, placed as the newest iteration in the evolution of feminism, relating to the ongoing debate about the role depicted by her character.

Throughout her professional career, Flockhart has maintained her naturally lean figure. However, many have commented that Flockhart had become dangerously thin, particularly when the actress made red carpet appearances in clothing that revealed a somewhat emaciated physique. She had maintained throughout the show's run that she was never diagnosed with either anorexia or bulimia, nor was she a user of illegal drugs. She did remark, however, that while starring in the show she refrained from eating sweets, retaining her slimness with intense workouts and running. In 2006, she admitted that she had a problem at the time, and was "exercising too much" and "eating too little".

Other work

Flockhart played the role of Helena in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', a 1999 film version of Shakespeare's play. In 2000, she appeared in ''Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her'' and ''Bash: Latter-Day Plays'', later accompanying Eve Ensler to Kenya in order to protest violence against women, particularly female genital mutilation. Flockhart also starred in the Off-Broadway production of Ensler's ''The Vagina Monologues''.

In 2004, Flockhart appeared as Matthew Broderick's deranged girlfriend in ''The Last Shot''. In the same year, Flockhart travelled to Spain for the filming of ''Fragile'', which premiered in September 2005 at the Venice Film Festival.

She was offered the role of Susan Mayer on ''Desperate Housewives'', but declined. The role went to Teri Hatcher. Flockhart currently stars as Kitty Walker, opposite Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths and Matthew Rhys, in the ABC prime time series ''Brothers & Sisters'', which premiered in September 2006 in the time slot after ''Desperate Housewives''. Flockhart's character was significant throughout the series first four years, but it was announced her schedule of appearances will be reduced for the 2010–2011 season, coinciding with the departure of TV husband Rob Lowe. ABC announced in May 2011 that the show was going to be cancelled.

Personal life

She dated director Sam Mendes in the late spring and summer of 1999. As of 2008, Flockhart is the national spokesperson for Peace Over Violence.

On January 11, 2001, Flockhart adopted a ten day old baby, Liam (born January 1, 2001), in San Diego.

In March 2009 it was reported that Flockhart became engaged to Harrison Ford on Valentine's Day, after more than seven years together. On June 15, 2010, they were married in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The ceremony was presided over by Governor Bill Richardson and New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Daniels.

Filmography

Film
! Year	! Film	! Role	! Notes
1993	''Naked in New York''	Acting student
''Gettin In''	Amanda Morel
''Quiz Show''	Barnard Girl
	''Pictures of Baby Jane Doe''	Jane
	Helen
	''The Birdcage''	Barbara Keeley
''Milk & Money''	Christine
1997	''Telling Lies in America''	Diney Majeski
1999		Helena
2000	''Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her''	Christine Taylor
2004	''The Last Shot''	Valerie Weston
2005		Amy Nicholls
Television
! Year	! Title	! Role	! Notes
1989	''Guiding Light''	Elise
1991		Lillian Anderson	Television movie
1992	''Lifestories: Families in Crisis''	Mary-Margaret Carter	Episode: "The Secret Life of Mary Margaret: Portrait of a Bulimic"
1997–2002	''Ally McBeal''		112 episodes
1998	''The Practice''
1999
2000	''Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child''	Vanna Van	(Voice) Episode: "Rip Van Winkle"
2001	''Bash: Latter-Day Plays''		Television movie
2006–2011		Kitty Walker	109 episodes

Awards and nominations

+	! Year!! Award !! Title !! Work !! Result
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Golden Globe Award	Best Actress in a TV Series - Comedy or Musical
	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
Viewers for Quality Television Award	Best Actress in a Quality Comedy Series
	American Comedy Award	Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series
Emmy Award	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Golden Globe Award	Best Actress in a TV Series - Comedy or Musical
Satellite Award	Best Actress in a TV Series - Comedy or Musical
	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
TV Guide Award	Favorite Actress in a Comedy Series
Television Critics Association Award	Individual Achievement in Comedy
	Golden Globe Award	Best Actress in a TV Series - Comedy or Musical
Peoples Choice Award	Favorite Female Television Performer
Satellite Award	Best Actress in a TV Series - Comedy or Musical
	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
TV Guide Award	Favorite Actress in a Comedy Series
Viewers for Quality Television Award	Best Actress in a Quality Comedy Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Golden Globe Award	Best Actress in a TV Series - Comedy or Musical
	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
2002	Golden Globe Award	Best Actress in a TV Series - Comedy or Musical
		Best Ensemble
Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
2009	Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

References

External links

http://www.cincohermanos.tk (Foro en castellano, actualizado)

|- ! colspan="3" style="background: #DAA520;" | Theatre World Award |-

Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:People from Freeport, Illinois Category:Actors from Illinois Category:American film actors Category:American soap opera actors Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:Clarence Derwent Award winners Category:People from Norwich, New York Category:Mason Gross School of the Arts alumni Category:Shakespearean actors Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (television) winners Category:Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Screen Actors Guild Award winners

ca:Calista Flockhart cs:Calista Flockhart cy:Calista Flockhart da:Calista Flockhart de:Calista Flockhart et:Calista Flockhart es:Calista Flockhart fr:Calista Flockhart hr:Calista Flockhart id:Calista Flockhart it:Calista Flockhart he:קליסטה פלוקהארט nl:Calista Flockhart ja:キャリスタ・フロックハート no:Calista Flockhart pl:Calista Flockhart pt:Calista Flockhart ro:Calista Flockhart ru:Флокхарт, Калиста simple:Calista Flockhart sk:Calista Flockhartová fi:Calista Flockhart sv:Calista Flockhart tl:Calista Flockhart tr:Calista Flockhart

Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
name	Lucy Liu
tradchinesename	劉玉玲
simpchinesename	刘玉玲
pinyinchinesename	Liú Yùlíng
birth name	Lucy Alexis Liu
birth date	December 02, 1968
birth place	Queens, New York, U.S.
occupation	Actress, producer
yearsactive	1991–present
website	}}

Lucy Alexis Liu (; born December 2, 1968) is an American actress and film producer. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series ''Ally McBeal'' (1998–2002), and has also appeared in several Hollywood films including ''Charlie's Angels'', ''Chicago'', ''Kill Bill'', and ''Kung Fu Panda''.

Early life

Liu was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. Her parents were immigrants from Taiwan. She has an older brother, John. Liu has said that she grew up in a "diverse" neighborhood. Her family spoke Mandarin at home and she did not learn English until she was five years old. Her father, Tom, was a civil engineer, and her mother, Cecilia, a biochemist, but they sacrificed those careers in Taiwan to come to the United States. Liu, at her parents' insistence, devoted her spare time to studying. She attended the Joseph Pulitzer Middle School (I.S.145) and she graduated from New York City's Stuyvesant High School in 1986. She attended New York University for one year, before transferring to the University of Michigan, where she joined the Chi Omega sorority and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Asian Languages and Cultures. At one point, Liu worked as a waitress in Michigan.

Career

Liu began acting in 1989, after auditioning for a role in the University of Michigan's production of ''Alice in Wonderland'' during her senior year. Liu was cast in the lead role, although she had originally only tried out for a supporting part. Liu had small roles in films and TV (including ''The X-Files'' in "Hell Money" and ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' in "The March to Freedom") before landing a role on ''Ally McBeal''. Liu originally auditioned for the role of 'Nelle Porter' (played by Portia de Rossi), and the character 'Ling Woo' was later created specifically for her. Liu's part on the series was originally not meant to be regular but the enthusiastic audience response to the actress's 'feisty' Ling Woo secured Liu as a permanent cast member. It also earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. Liu cemented her reputation playing bad girls by portraying "Pearl" the sadistic dominatrix/hitwoman for the Chinese mafia in the film ''Payback'' (1999).

Liu played Alex Munday in the ''Charlie's Angels'' film, alongside established Hollywood stars Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz. The film opened in November 2000 and was a hit, earning more than $125 million in the U.S., and a worldwide total of more than $264 million. The sequel, ''Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle'', opened in June 2003 and was a box-office hit again, earning more than $100 million in the U.S., and a worldwide total of more than $259 million. In between the two films, Liu starred with Antonio Banderas in ''Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever'', a critical and box office failure.

Liu next played Rita Foster in Vincenzo Natali's ''Brainstorm'' (original title ''Cypher'') in 2002. This was followed shortly after by her role as O-Ren Ishii, one of the major villains in Quentin Tarantino's 2003 film, ''Kill Bill''. She won an MTV Award for "Best Movie Villain" for the part. Subsequently, Liu appeared on several episodes of ''Joey'' with Matt LeBlanc, who played her love interest in the ''Charlie's Angels'' films. She also had smaller roles as Kitty Baxter in the film ''Chicago'', and as a psychologist opposite Keira Knightley in the thriller ''Domino''. In 2006, she played leading lady and love interest to Josh Hartnett in the crime thriller ''Lucky Number Slevin''. Other appearances include a cameo on the animated shows ''Futurama'' (as herself and/or robot duplicates thereof in the episodes "I Dated a Robot" and "Love and Rocket") and ''The Simpsons'' (on the season sixteen episode "Goo Goo Gai Pan"), and a guest host on an episode of the NBC sketch show ''Saturday Night Live'' in 2000 (musical guest: Jay-Z).

Her film ''3 Needles'' was released on December 1, 2006. In the film, she plays Jin Ping, an HIV-positive Chinese woman. Liu agreed to star in the film for lower than usual pay because she wanted to spread awareness about the way AIDS is improperly treated in China and Thailand. Liu's other recent roles, which met with less success, but later gain cult followings among her fans, include ''Code Name: The Cleaner'', an action comedy released January 5, 2007; ''Rise'', a supernatural thriller co-starring Michael Chiklis in which Liu plays an undead reporter (for which she was ranked number forty-one on "Top 50 Sexiest Vampires"); and ''Watching the Detectives'', an independent romantic comedy co-starring Cillian Murphy. Liu has also signed on to star in a new version of ''Charlie Chan'' which has been in pre-production since 2000; she will produce both films.

Liu has guest-starred as lawyer Grace Chin on ''Ugly Betty'' in the episodes "Derailed" and "Icing on the Cake". In a 2001 episode of ''Sex and the City'' entitled "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" she guest starred as herself, playing a new client of character Samantha Jones, who does public relations. She starred in the ''Sex and the City'' inspired TV show, ''Cashmere Mafia'' on ABC. In 2007, Empire magazine named her among the "100 Sexiest Movie Stars".

In 2008, after pitching an interest in being part of the hit new show, ''Dirty Sexy Money'', the producers immediately created a role for her as a series regular. She played the role of Nola Lyons, a powerful attorney that faced Nick George (played by Peter Krause). She is the voice for Silvermist in ''Disney Fairies'' franchise. She also appeared in ''Kung Fu Panda'', an animated film in which she voiced Viper.

On March 2, 2010, Liu made her Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning play ''God of Carnage'' playing Annette as part of the second replacement cast along side Jeff Daniels, Janet McTeer and Dylan Baker.

Personal life

In a ''Jane'' interview, she is quoted as saying,

I think people sometimes get the wrong impression when they're like, 'Oh, well, so-and-so was straight and then she was gay, and now she's straight again,' you know? But it's like, how many times do I have to kiss a woman before I'm gay? Everybody wants to label people. Sometimes you just fall in love with somebody, and you're really not thinking about what gender or whatever they happen to be. I think that if I happen to fall in love with a woman, everyone's going to make a big deal out of it. But if I happen to fall in love with a man, nobody cares.

With her parents' work ethic, Liu continued, "I'm always multi-tasking, doing 10 things at once". She speaks Mandarin Chinese and English natively, and "a little bit of Spanish, a tiny bit of Italian, a little bit of Japanese," for her role in ''Kill Bill''. She also rock climbs, practices martial arts, skis, and plays the accordion.

Liu is also an artist in several media, and has had three gallery shows showcasing her collage, paintings, and photography. She started doing collage mixed media at 16 and then moved to photography and later painting. Lucy Liu had an art show in September 2006 and she donated her share of the profits to UNICEF. She also has another show in 2008 in Munich and has stated that she will also donate her share of the profits to UNICEF.

In 2001, Liu was the spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day fundraiser which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer research and education. In 2005, Liu was appointed a U.S. Fund for UNICEF Ambassador; in that capacity, she has traveled to Pakistan and Lesotho, among other countries. She also hosted an MTV documentary for the MTV EXIT campaign in 2007, produced to raise awareness of human trafficking in Asia. Early in 2006, Liu received an "Asian Excellence Award" for ''Visibility''. She is also the first Asian American woman to host ''Saturday Night Live''.

Liu is a spokesperson in support for marriage equality for gays and lesbians.

Liu has said about her background, "when you grow up Asian American it’s difficult because you don’t know if you’re Asian or you’re American. You get confused... You need to recognize where your background is from. I think it’s important. Just for yourself. It makes you more whole. It does."

She lives with her brother and his wife in New York.

Filmography

''Protozoa'' ''Bang (film) ''Jerry Maguire'' ''Flypaper (1997 film) ''Riot (1997 film) ''Gridlock'd'' ''City of Industry (film) ''Guy'' ''Love Kills (film) ''Payback (1999 film) ''True Crime (1999 film) ''Molly (film) ''The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human'' ''Play It to the Bone'' ''Shanghai Noon'' ''Charlie's Angels (film) ''Hotel (2001 film) ''Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever'' ''Cypher (film) ''Chicago (2002 film) ''Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle'' ''Kill Bill ''Mulan II'' ''3 Needles'' ''Domino (film) ''Lucky Number Slevin'' ''Code Name: The Cleaner'' ''Rise: Blood Hunter'' ''Watching the Detectives (film) ''Kung Fu Panda'' ''The Year of Getting to Know Us'' ''Tinker Bell (film) ''Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure'' ''Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue'' ''Nomads (2010 film) ''East Fifth Bliss'' ''Detachment (film) ''Tinker Bell and the Pixie Hollow Games'' ''Kung Fu Panda 2'' ''Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (film) ''The Man with the Iron Fists''

Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1992	''Rhythm of Destiny''
1993	|	Ari
1995	Bang'' ||	Hooker
1996	|	Former Girlfriend
1997	Flypaper'' ||	Dot
1997	Riot'' ||	Luke Perry's Girlfriend
1997	|	Cee-Cee
1997	City of Industry'' ||	Cathi Rose
1997	|	Woman at newsstand
1998	Love Kills'' ||	Kashi
1999	Payback'' ||	Pearl
1999	True Crime'' ||	Toy Shop Girl
1999	Molly'' ||	Brenda
1999	|	Lydia
1999	|	Lia
2000	|	Princess Pei Pei	Blockbuster Inc.>Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress - Action
2000	Charlie's Angels'' ||	Alex Munday	Blockbuster Inc.>Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Action TeamMTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen DuoNominated—MTV Movie Award for Best DressedNominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
2001	Hotel'' ||	Kawikar
2002	|	Agent Sever
2002	Cypher'' ||	Rita Foster
2002	Chicago'' ||	Kitty Baxter	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best CastScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion PictureNominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best CastNominated—Teen Choice Award>Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Hissy Fit
2003	|	Alex Munday	MTV Movie Awards>MTV Movie Award for Best Dance Sequence
2003	Kill Bill: Vol. 1'' ||	O-Ren Ishii	MTV Movie Award for Best VillainNominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
2004	|	Mei	(voice)
2005	|	Jin Ping, the Blood Smuggler
2005	Domino'' ||	Taryn Mills
2006	|	Lindsey
2007	|	Gina	Also executive producer
2007	|	Sadie Blake
2007	Watching the Detectives'' ||	Violet
2008	|	Master Viper	(voice)
2008	|	Anne
2008	Tinker Bell'' ||	Silvermist	(voice)
2009	|	Silvermist	(voice)
2010	|	Silvermist	(voice)
2010	Nomads'' ||	Susan
2011	|	Andrea
2011	Detachment'' ||	Dr. Parker
2011	|	Silvermist	(voice)
2011	|	Viper	(voice)
2011	Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You'' ||	Hilda Temple	Post-production
2011	|	Madame Blossom	Post-production

Television

''Ally McBeal'' ''Game Over (TV series) ''Maya and Miguel'' ''Ben & Izzy'' ''Cashmere Mafia'' ''Dirty Sexy Money'' ''Afro Samurai: Resurrection ''Marry Me (television film) ''Southland (TV series)

Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1996–1997	Pearl (TV series)>Pearl''	Amy Li
1998–2002	|	Ling Woo	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy SeriesNominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Comedy SeriesNominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama SeriesNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy SeriesNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy SeriesNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
2004	Game Over''||	Raquel Smashenburn
2004–2010	|	Maggie Lee
2008	|	Yasmine	Voice acted a major role in a non-American, children's production which was originally released in English.
2008	|	Mia Mason
2008–2009	|	Nola Lyons
2009	Afro Samurai Resurrection'' ||	Sio
2010	Marry Me'' ||	Rae Carter	Lifetime Movie release date: December 12, 2010
2012	Southland'' ||

TV guest appearances

''L.A. Law'' ''Coach (TV series) ''Hotel Malibu'' ''Home Improvement (TV series) ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' ''ER (TV series) ''Nash Bridges'' ''The X Files'' ''High Incident'' ''The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest'' ''Michael Hayes (TV series) ''Dellaventura'' ''NYPD Blue'' ''MADtv'' ''Saturday Night Live'' ''Sex and the City'' ''King of the Hill'' ''Futurama'' ''Jackie Chan Adventures'' ''Joey (TV series) ''The Simpsons'' ''Ugly Betty'' ''Ni Hao, Kai-Lan''

Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1991	''Beverly Hills, 90210''	Courtney
1993	|	Mai Lin
1994	Coach'' ||	Nicole Wong
1994	|	Co-Worker
1995	Home Improvement'' ||	Women #3
1995	|	Oi-Lan
1995	ER'' ||	Mei-Sun Leow
1996	|	Joy Powell
1996	|	Kim Hsin
1996	|	Officer Whin
1997	|	Melana (voice)
1997	Michael Hayes''||	Alice Woo
1997	|	Yuling Chong
1997	|	Amy Chu
2000	|	Herself
2000	|	Herself - Host
2001	|	Herself
2002	|	Tid-Pao
2001–2002	|	Herself (voice)
2004	|	Adult Jade (voice)
2004–2005	Joey''||	Lauren Beck
2005	|	Madam Wu (voice)
2007	|	Grace Chin
2010	|	Bear Queen

Producer

Year> ''Code Name: The Cleaner''

! Title	! Role	Notes
2006	''Freedom's Fury''	Co-executive producer
2007	|	Co-executive producer

References

External links

Lucy Liu's Interview on Playboy

Category:1968 births Category:Living people Category:Actors from New York City Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American voice actors Category:American actors of Asian descent Category:Bisexual actors Category:LGBT Asian Americans Category:LGBT people from the United States Category:American people of Chinese descent Category:New York University alumni Category:People from Jackson Heights, Queens Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:Stuyvesant High School alumni Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:American people of Taiwanese descent Category:American actors of Chinese descent Category:American film producers

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Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
name	Cameron Diaz
birth name	Cameron Michelle Diaz
birth date	August 30, 1972
birth place	San Diego, California, U.S.
occupation	Actress, model
years active	1988–93 (model)1993–present (actress) }}

Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies ''The Mask'', ''My Best Friend's Wedding'', and ''There's Something About Mary''. Other high-profile credits include the two ''Charlie's Angels'' films and voicing the character Princess Fiona for the ''Shrek'' series. Diaz received Golden Globe award nominations for her performances in the movies ''There's Something About Mary'', ''Being John Malkovich'', ''Vanilla Sky'', and ''Gangs of New York''.

Early life

Diaz was born in San Diego, California. Her mother, Billie (née Early), is an import-export agent, and her father, Emilio Diaz (1949–2008), worked for the California oil company UNOCAL for more than 20 years as a field gauger. She has an older sister, Chimene. Her father's family came from Spain via Cuba (her paternal grandparents settled in Tampa's Ybor City and her father was born in Los Angeles County). Her mother is of English, German, Native American, and Dutch descent. Diaz was raised in Long Beach, California and attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School.

Career

Modeling

At age sixteen, she began her career as a fashion model, contracted with modeling agency Elite Model Management. For the next few years, she worked around the world for contracts with major companies, modeling for designers such as Calvin Klein and Levi's. When she was 17 years old, she was featured on the front cover of the July 1990 issue of the magazine ''Seventeen''.

Acting

At age 21, Diaz auditioned for the movie ''The Mask'', based on the recommendation of an agent for Elite, who met the film's producers while they were searching for the female main actress. Having no previous acting experience, she started acting lessons after being cast. ''The Mask'' became one of the top ten highest grossing films of 1994, earned Diaz nominations for several awards and launched her as a sex symbol.

During the next three years, she had roles in the low-budget independent films ''The Last Supper'' (1995), ''Feeling Minnesota'' (1996), ''She's the One'' (1996), ''Keys to Tulsa'' (1996), and ''A Life Less Ordinary'' (1997), preferring to feel her way effectively into the business. She was scheduled to feature in the film ''Mortal Kombat'', but had to resign after breaking her hand while training for the role.

She returned to mainstream films with the major movie successes ''My Best Friend's Wedding'' (1997) and ''There's Something About Mary'' (1998), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for the category of ''Best Actress – Musical or Comedy''. She received critical acclaim for her performance in ''Being John Malkovich'' (1999), which earned her Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globe Award, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG Awards). Between 1998 and 2000, Diaz featured in many movies, such as ''Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her'', ''Very Bad Things'', ''Any Given Sunday'', and the successful adaptation of ''Charlie's Angels''. During 2001, she won nominations for Best Supporting Actress for the Golden Globe Awards, the SAG Awards, the Critics' Choice Awards, and the American Film Institute Awards for ''Vanilla Sky'', and also voiced Princess Fiona in the movie ''Shrek'', for which she earned $10 million.

During 2003, Diaz received another Golden Globe nomination for Martin Scorsese's 2002 epic ''Gangs of New York'', and became the third actress (after ''Wedding'' costar Julia Roberts) to earn $20 million for a role, receiving the sum for ''Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle''. Her next movies were ''In Her Shoes'' (2005) and ''The Holiday'' (2006). She was preparing to work again with ''The Mask'' co-star Jim Carrey for the film ''Fun with Dick and Jane'', but resigned to feature in ''In Her Shoes''. Diaz reportedly earned $50 million during the period of a year ending June 2008, for her roles in ''What Happens in Vegas'' opposite Ashton Kutcher, and the ''Shrek'' sequels. In 2009, she starred in ''My Sister's Keeper'' and ''The Box''.

During 2010, Forbes Magazine ranked Cameron Diaz as the richest Hispanic female ''celebrity'', ranking number 60 among the wealthiest 100. Also that year, Diaz was cast as the female lead in a live action/animation hybrid film version of The Smurfs, and as well as voicing Princess Fiona for the movie ''Shrek Forever After'', also reunited with her ''Vanilla Sky'' co-star Tom Cruise in the action/comedy ''Knight and Day'', and on January 14, she played "Lenore Case", the journalist in the remake of the 1940's film, ''The Green Hornet''. She was listed among CEOWORLD magazine's Top Accomplished Women Entertainers.

Personal life

Diaz received "substantial" defamation damages from suing American Media Incorporated, after ''The National Enquirer'' had claimed she was cheating on then-paramour Justin Timberlake.

When Diaz was asked if she can speak Spanish she said:

She endorsed Al Gore publicly during 2000. Diaz wore a t-shirt that read "I won't vote for a son of a Bush!" while making publicity visits for ''Charlie's Angels''.

Diaz has also been involved with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the first and largest nonprofit organization for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has spoken as an advocate for military families.

Although she was quoted by a 1997 ''Time'' magazine article as saying she was germophobic, Diaz specifically denied this on the June 26, 2009, edition of ''Real Time with Bill Maher'', saying that a small comment she made 12 years earlier regarding public bathroom doorknobs was distorted out of proportion. Furthermore, on the June 21, 2011 episode of ''The Daily Show With Jon Stewart'', Diaz removed stitches from the wrist of Jon Stewart, on-camera.

On April 15, 2008, her father, Emilio Diaz, died of pneumonia, aged 58.

Relationships

During 1995, she began a relationship with actor Matt Dillon, with whom she co-starred in ''There's Something About Mary''; the relationship ended during 1998.

Diaz dated singer Justin Timberlake from 2003 to 2006. During October 2004, Diaz and Timberlake were in an altercation with a tabloid photographer outside a hotel. When the photographer and another man tried to photograph them, the couple snatched the camera. Pictures of the incident appeared in ''Us Weekly''. Representatives for the pair claimed that they were acting a scene on a set.

As of July 2010, Diaz has been in a romantic relationship with New York Yankees baseball star Alex Rodriguez.

Filmography and awards

During 1996, Diaz received an award at the ShoWest Convention for "Female Star of Tomorrow." During 2006, she won a People's Choice Award for "Favorite Leading Lady." On June 22, 2009, she was commemorated by a star-figure on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Films

! Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes
1994		Tina Carlyle
1995		Jude
	''She's the One''	Heather
''Feeling Minnesota''	Freddie Clayton
''Head Above Water''	Nathalie
''Keys to Tulsa''	Trudy
	''My Best Friend's Wedding''	Kimberly Wallace	ALMA Award
''[[A Life Less Ordinary''	Celine Naville
		Blonde TV Reporter
''There's Something About Mary''	Mary Jensen	American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Blockbuster Award for Favorite Actress – ComedyMTV Movie Award for Best PerformanceNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Nominated — ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film in a Crossover RoleNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
''Very Bad Things''	Laura Garrety
	''Man Woman Film''	Random Celebrity	cameo
''Being John Malkovich''	Lotte Schwartz
''Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her''	Carol Faber
	Faith
''Any Given Sunday''	Christina Pagniacci	ALMA Award
2000
	''[[Shrek''	Princess Fiona	Voice
''Vanilla Sky''	Julie Gianni	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting ActressChicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated — American Film Institute
	''[[The Sweetest Thing''	Christina Walters
''Gangs of New York''	Jenny Everdeane
2003	''Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle''		Nominated — Golden Raspberry Award
2004	''[[Shrek 2''	Princess Fiona	Voice
2005		Maggie Feller	Nominated —
2006	''The Holiday''	Amanda Woods
2007	''Shrek the Third''	Princess Fiona	Voice
2008	''What Happens in Vegas''	Joy McNally	Nominated — Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress in a Comedy Nominated — Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple and for Worst Actress
		Sara Fitzgerald	Nominated — ALMA Award
	Norma Lewis
	''[[Shrek Forever After''	Princess Fiona
''Knight and Day''	June Havens
		Lenore Case
''Bad Teacher''	Elizabeth Halsey
! Year	! Title	! Role	! Notes
2005	''[[Trippin'">Teen Choice Award
		PJ Puznowski	Filming
	Jules	Filming

Television

! Year	! Title	! Role	! Notes
2005	''[[Trippin'''	Herself	MTV – Travel Documentary
2007	''Shrek the Halls''	Princess Fiona	Voice Made for television
2008–2009	''Saturday Night Live''	Kiki Deamore	3 episodes
2009	Sesame Street	Herself
2010		Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car
2010	''Scared Shrekless''	Princess Fiona	Voice Made for television
2011		Herself, as a guest judge

References

External links

Photographs and literature

Category:1972 births Category:Actors from San_Diego, California Category:American entertainers of Cuban descent Category:American female models Category:American film actors Category:American people of Dutch descent Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of German descent Category:American people of Native American descent Category:American people of Spanish descent Category:American voice actors Category:Hispanic and Latino American actors Category:Living people Category:People from Long Beach, California

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