Fann Woon Fong ( , formerly
范雯芳; born 27 January 1971), better known by her stage name Fann Wong, is a
Singaporean
actress, singer and model.
At Singapore's
Star Awards 1995, Fann
became the first actress to win both the Best Actress and Best
Newcomer awards in the same year.
After gaining regional exposure and
popularity in Asia through film and television productions, she became the first
Singaporean actress to break into Hollywood
, playing Chon Lin in the 2003 film Shanghai Knights. She was also
the youngest actress to have earned an All-Time Favourite Award at
the Star Awards. In late 2002, Fann became romantically attached to
Malaysian actor
Christopher Lee, with
whom she has collaborated eight times. She married the actor on
September 29, 2009. She is known to zealously safeguard her
privacy.
Early life and career
Early days: Television career
Born in Singapore to
Hakka middle-class
tailor parents, Fann shared her childhood
with three siblings - an older sister, as well as a younger brother
and sister. She was educated at
Temasek Secondary School, where she
took her
GCE 'O' Level examinations in
1987.
At the age of sixteen, she won a beauty contest organised by
Her World, a Singapore fashion
magazine. She started a successful modelling career in Singapore,
and spent the next two years modelling part-time while taking her
GCE 'A' Level examinations at a
private school. She afterward earned a diploma in fashion
merchandising from
LASALLE-SIA College of the
Arts.
Fann moved to Taiwan in 1993. One of her earliest successes was in
an
Oil of Ulan (now Oil of Olay)
commercial aired in Taiwan and Singapore. The following year, a
Singaporean television producer discovered her and cast her in
Dreams Come True, a Singapore drama series. Fann soon
starred in two more Singapore television series,
The
Challenger and
Chronicle of Life.
After a year in the Singapore television industry, her role in
Chronicle of Life won her Best Actress and Best Newcomer
awards at Singapore's 1995
Star Awards.
In 1996, her role in
The Unbroken
Cycle won her first regional nomination at the Asian
Television Awards.
She continued to star in a large array of
drama serials, including A
Romance in Shanghai (produced in Shanghai), Wild
Orchids (filmed in Sydney) and Brave New World
(filmed in Amsterdam
and Belgium).
In late 1996, Fann released in Singapore her first Mandarin pop
album
Fanntasy, which contained a
duet with Taiwanese singer
Jeff Chang.
The album was retitled
I Live
Alone and repackaged with two additional songs for the
Taiwanese market and won 4
IFPI platinum sales
awards in Taiwan, marking the start of Fann's regional
success.
Late 90s: Rise of regional popularity
Return
of the Condor Heroes (1998).]]
In mid-1998, the release of Fann's hit
wuxia
drama
Return of the
Condor Heroes along with her second album,
Shopping, further increased her
exposure in Taiwan and China. When Hong Kong director
Derek Yee saw Fann's "Shopping"
music video on Hong Kong's
Channel V, he flew to Singapore to cast her as the
lead actress in the Hong Kong art film
The Truth About Jane and
Sam. The movie topped the Singapore box office for three
weeks and her role as a gritty wild-child won her a Best New
Performer nomination at the 19th
Hong Kong Film Awards in 2000. In
addition, her role as a self-centred
stockbroker in
Out to
Win attracted a million viewers in Singapore during its
finale.
In 1999, Fann released her third album
Missing You, recorded
Private Number with British boyband
911, and performed
Moments of Magic, Singapore's official
millennium song.
These musical successes resulted in her being
the first Singapore artiste to stage a solo paying concert ("My
Story" - Fann Wong In Concert) at the Singapore Indoor
Stadium
in 2000. That same year, she released her
fourth Mandarin album,
No
Problem.
During the next few years, Fann focused on her acting career. She
played a two-timing television reporter in the omnibus Hong Kong
film
When I Fall in
Love... With Both, acted as a
lovelorn insurance agent in the Singaporean romantic drama
Looking For Stars, as
well as played the title character in the Taiwanese period drama
Madam White
Snake. She also began hosting travelogue shows, including
Travel Hunt: Japan and
Fann Adventure, which was
filmed in South Africa and Malaysia.
And she became the 1st Asian artists to endorse the Italian
label-Emporieo Armani.
2003: Hollywood
In 2002, Fann became the first Singaporean actress to score a major
role in a Hollywood production as Chon Lin in
Shanghai Knights. When the film was
released in early 2003, Stephen Hunter of the
Washington Post stated:
Fann is an enchanting new film presence. Clearly
modelled after Zhang Ziyi of Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon, she combines a dancer's grace with a fighter's
speed, and looks great standing still or whirling.
The Hollywood
Reporter's David Hunter noted that Fann was "more than
equal to playing the strong woman fighter who's also pretty darn
cute", while John Keenan of the
Omaha World-Herald stated that
"Fann's stunt work is actually more memorable than
Jackie Chan's here".
In Hong Kong, the
South China Morning
Post stated that she "seems set to displace Lucy Liu as Hollywood's Asian babe du jour". She was subsequently
nominated under the Best Fight category in
MTV Movie Awards 2003, and in 2004,
won the Singapore Street Festival's Best International Artiste
Award.
2004
In 2004, Fann continued acting in China period dramas such as
Moon Fairy and
My Fair Lady. She also starred in
a Singapore serial on the
SARS epidemic titled
Always On My Mind, which won her a Best Actress nomination
at the 2004 Star Awards. In mid-2004, Fann was cast in the lead
role in the German-Singapore telemovie,
House of Harmony. In late 2004, Fann
released her first publication, a semi-autobiographical
comic book Girl Illustrated. After a
musical hiatus of five years, she released her first compilation,
In Love With You.
2005 to Present
In April 2005, Fann was invited to the Cannes
MIPTV Media Market where she promoted
House of Harmony and discussed possible collaborations
with European industry professionals.
House of Harmony has since been
telecast in Germany, Austria, France and Belgium to a combined
prime-time viewership of over 80 million. That same year, Fann took
on a lead role in a Taiwanese art-house romance film,
Dragon Eye Congee, which was
nominated for five categories at the inaugural
Asian Festival of First
Films.
In August 2005, she made her voiceover debut in Singapore's first
3D animation film,
Zodiac,
The Race Begins, which was released in early 2006.
Furthermore, she also contributed her songs for the soundtracks of
the movie.
In
November 2006, Fann made her first promotional visit to Phnom Penh
, Cambodia
.
She
performed at the Tonle
Sap
Water Festival Mega Concert and visited the Krousar
Thmey blind school, where she donated cassette recorders and
biscuits.
In early 2007, Fann signed a management contract with China's Huayi
Brothers. Fann also became the first Singaporean artiste to release
a self-illustrated 3G animation titled
Fanntasy World. The release of her Singapore
film,
Just Follow Law, in
which she had to play an uncouth and scruffy man in a woman's body,
was a major attraction at the
Chinese
New Year box office and won her critical acclaim in the
Singapore and Malaysian media.
In 2008, she was invited to be a judge at 6th "spirit of fire"
international film festival which was held in Russia. "Ah Long Pte
Ltd" hit the 1st spot in both Singapore and Malaysia's box office
during the Chinese new year.Later, the film "Dance of Dragon" that
she paired with Korean hunk Jang Hyuk led her to win her 1st
international best actress at West Hollywood International Film
Festival.
In 2009, Fann starred with then-boyfriend Christopher Lee in
The Wedding Game.The movie later won the best feature film
at 1st international comedy film festival which was held in
Thailand.In June, she finished her new Chinese movie "yi bu liu
shen"(English tiled to be announced).
Now she's filming "lan se shi che ju" starring with Alex Fong and
Chang Chen in Hainan.
Personal life
Fann has been romantically involved with Singaporean actor
Christopher Lee since late
2002, although the pair only admitted their relationship in
mid-2005. She has had only one prior romance — an 11-year
relationship with businessman Anthony Chan.
Fann and Lee have collaborated eight times in television
productions, and have played lovers in six of these. The 2004
Star Awards saw colleagues
Chew Chor Meng,
Zoe
Tay,
Huang Biren and
Mark Lee attempting to out their
romance, while Zoe Tay urged Lee to propose to Fann at the 2005
Star Awards. After Fann and Lee publicly
admitted to their relationship in mid-2005, they were seldom seen
together. However, in December 2006, they walked together
hand-in-hand down the blue carpet of the 2006 Star Awards ceremony.
The gesture was noted by the Singapore media as a rare public
acknowledgement of their relationship.
In September 2008, it was rumored she would be marrying Christopher
Lee. They finally got married on May 16, 2009. They were together
for 8 years. Fann's hobbies include illustrating comics, shopping,
eating and sleeping.
Works
Awards
| Year |
Recognition |
| 1988 |
- Her World Magazine (Singapore) Cover
Girl Winner
|
| 1995 |
|
| 1996 |
- Asian Television Awards, Best Actress Nomination (The Unbroken Cycle)
- Singapore Star Awards, Best Actress
Nomination (The Unbroken Cycle)
- Singapore Hit Awards, Media Recommendation Award
Nomination(Local Singer)
- Singapore Star Awards, Top 10 Most
Popular Female Artiste
|
| 1997 |
- Singapore Star Awards, Best Actress
Nomination (The Matchmaker's Match)
- Singapore Star Awards, Top 10 Most
Popular Female Artiste
|
| 1998 |
|
| 1999 |
|
| 2000 |
|
| 2001 |
- Singapore Star Awards, Best Actress
Nomination (Heroes in Black)
- Singapore Star Awards, Top 10 Most
Popular Female Artiste
|
| 2002 |
- Singapore Star Awards, Top 10 Most
Popular Female Artiste
|
| 2003 |
|
| 2004 |
- Singapore Street Festival, Best International Artiste
Award
- Singapore Star Awards, Best Actress
Nomination (Always On My Mind)
- Singapore Star Awards, Top 10 Most
Popular Female Artiste
|
| 2005 |
|
| 2006 |
|
| 2007 |
- China Bai He Jiang, Top 10 Most Popular Female Artiste
Award
|
| 2008 |
- West Hollywood International Film Festival, Best Actress (Dance
of the Dragon)
|
| 2009 |
- Singapore Star Awards, Best Actress
Nomination (The Defining Moment)
|
Fann was also an annual recipient of a popularity award at the
Singapore
Star Awards from 1995 to 2004
(titled 'Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes'). This culminated in
her being awarded the All-Time Favourite Artiste Award at the 2005
Star Awards.
References
- "Fann-ing up: Actress Fann Wong wants to take on
more challenging roles in the near future", The Sun, 5
April 2007
- "Fann Wong", Movie Music News, 26 October
2008
- (also see Susan
Long)
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