Biography

Nguyen was born in Marseille, France. Her mother was French, her father was Vietnamese. During World War II, her mother and grandfather were persecuted by the Nazis for being Roma. Nuyen was raised in Marseille by a cousin she calls "an orchidaceae raiser who was the only person who gave a damn about me". Having left school at the age of eleven, she began studying art and became an artist's model.

In 1955, while working as a seamstress, Nguyen was discovered on the beach by Life magazine photographer Philippe Halsman. She was featured on the cover of the October 6, 1958, issue of Life magazine.

She became a film actress in 1958. In her first role she played Liat, daughter of "Bloody Mary," played by Juanita Hall, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. Later that year she had the lead role in the theatrical production of The World of Suzie Wong, opposite William Shatner. She was originally cast to star in the film production, but was replaced by Nancy Kwan. She worked with Shatner again in an episode of Star Trek, playing Elaan of Troyius, and in an episode of Kung Fu.

Nuyen appeared in films including The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961) Satan Never Sleeps (1962), A Girl Named Tamiko (1962), Diamond Head (1963), Dimension 5 (1966), Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), and The Joy Luck Club (1993).

In 1978, she guest-starred with Peter Falk and Louis Jourdan in the Columbo episode "Murder Under Glass". In 1986, she joined the cast of St. Elsewhere as Dr. Paulette Kiem, remaining until the series ended in 1988. Her last known credit is for The American Standards, a film released in 2008.

Personal life

From 1963 to 1966, Nuyen was married to Dr. Thomas Gaspar Morell, a psychiatrist, by whom she has a daughter Fleur, who resides in Canada and works as a film make-up artist. She met her second husband, Robert Culp, while appearing on four different episodes of his show I Spy. They married in 1967 but divorced three years later.

In 1986, Nuyen earned a master's degree in clinical psychology and began a second career as a psychological counselor for abused women and children, and women in prison. She received a Woman of the Year award in 1989 for her psychological work. In the Life magazine cover story on Nuyen, she is quoted as saying a proverb she also repeated in character as a spy in the I Spy episode "Magic Mirror": "I am Chinese. I am a stone. I go where I am kicked."

Filmography

• South Pacific (1958)
• In Love and War (1958)
• The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961)
• Satan Never Sleeps (1962)
• A Girl Named Tamiko (1962)
• Diamond Head (1963)
• Man in the Middle (1964)
• Dimension 5 (1966)
• One More Train to Rob (1971)
• The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973)
• Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
• China Cry (1990)
• The Joy Luck Club (1993)
• The American Standards (2008)

Television appearances

• Gunsmoke (1966)
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965) "The Cherry Blossom Affair"
• I Spy
• Star Trek (1968) "Elaan of Troyius"
• Kung Fu
• Medical Center
• Hawaii Five-O
• The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) "The Coward"
• Code Name: Diamond Head (1977) -failed pilot
• Charlie's Angels
• Columbo (1978) "Murder Under Glass"
• Fantasy Island (1978) "Return to Fantasy Island"
• Magnum P.I. (1985) "Torah Torah Torah"
• Murder, She Wrote "A Death In Hong Kong"
• St. Elsewhere
• Knots Landing (1990) as a doctor.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]