- published: 28 Oct 2011
- views: 3245
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 dialects of Chinese.
Born in Shanghai, China to Z.M. and Dulcie Lynn Tsu. 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 Choreogrpher Hermes Pan in the upcoming film adaptation of the musical Flower Drum Song. 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.
Maybe we'll move to New York City
And then we'll celebrate "good bye"
We'll find a place that we can start a fight
And feel good to be alive
And so we'll drive across the country
On this endless holiday
You'll take the shortcut as I watch life pass
I can't remember who drove last
Errands, errands
Why don't you think they'd understand?
Errands, errands
Why don't you think before that next drink?
It's gonna be your last mistake, oh yeah...
And it's going to devastate all them
We're on our way to run more errands
Travelers without a plan
And I've been awake for way too long
I can't remember who I am
Errands, errands
Why don't you think they'd understand?
Errands, errands
Why don't you think before that next tweak?
It's gonna be your last mistake, oh yeah...