Gan Mingxia

Gan Mingxia (Chinese: 甘明霞; pinyin: Gān Míngxiá; born July 13, 1941) is an American-born Tsengian actress. She is widely considered to be one of the greatest Tsengian actresses. Acting since the early 1960s, her breakout role was in the movie Afterglow (1965). Becoming a sensation overnight, her other acclaimed performances were in the Brothers Under the Sun trilogy, Brazen (1978), Huang-li (1984), and A Springtime Love Story (2005).

Early life
Gan was born Gan Meixi (甘美熙) on July 13, 1941 to middle-class Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, California. Her family later emigrated to Tseng when she was 9, settling down in Hillsborough. She attended Mother Mary High School. At age 15, in 1956, she starred in a commercial advertising.

She was active in high school plays and after graduating from the University of Hillsborough, she was signed to Taoshan Pictures and starred in her first movie in 1961, called "A Swan's Kiss". She was named Gan Mingxia, meaning "bright afterglow".

Career
With the outbreak of the Luanzheng in 1962, Gan starred in many Taoshan political and propaganda films. Her director from 1961 to 1965, named Bill Lei, was a rightist, and made films that glorified Pierre Huang-li and made socialists look like savages. Gan usually starred as the "damsel in distress" due to her looks. In 1965, she starred in Joseph Yang's film Afterglow, playing a femme fatale defeating a triad. Her performance was praised by critics, but disgusted the conservatives. Nevertheless, Gan became an overnight sensation.

Gan starred in Gaw Weiguo's 1967 western film Brothers Under the Sun alongside George Mileham (in his debut feature film) and Mareks Liepiņš. It was a huge success and cemented Gan as one of Tseng's leading actors/actresses, and introduced her a wider audience outside of Tseng. She later starred in the sequels Voyage from El Paso (1970) and Cannonball (1972). The trilogy was shot in the Meihua state on Old West sets at the Lizhong Film Productions Studio.

1970 was the most important year of her life, according to Gan. She was the winner of the 1st Spring Festival Film Award, for Best Actress (now known as Best Leading Actress). She won that award again in 1972 and 1978. Also in 1970, she married to Belgian director and screenwriter Marcel Vignon. They had 3 children.

In 1984, Gan starred as Natalie Auvergne for the biographical drama film Huang-li. For that she earned a Spring Festival Film Award for Best Supporting Actress.