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Maggie Cheung was born on September 20, 1964, in Hong Kong, and moved at the age of eight with her family to England. After finishing secondary school, she returned to Hong Kong, where she began modeling and appearing in commercials. In 1983 she participated in the Ms. Hong Kong pageant, winning first runner-up, which proved not to be a detriment since she went on to become a star of both Hong Kong television and film.

Biography

Cheung spent part of her childhood and adolescence in the United Kingdom. Upon her return to Hong Kong, Cheung ran and won second place in the Miss Hong Kong beauty pageant contest in 1983 at the age of 19, and was a semi-finalist in the Miss World pageant the same year.

One of Cheung’’s many notable movie roles is that of ‘May’, the girlfriend of police detective ‘Kevin’ Chan Ka Kui in the Jackie Chan’’s Police Story movies (However, she did not reprise the role in Police Story 4: First Strike nor in New Police Story).

Audiences outside Asia have become increasingly familiar with her work, including her roles in Centre Stage (as Ruan Lingyu), In the Mood for Love, Irma Vep, 2046, Hero, and Clean.

She married French director Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep, Clean) in 1998 but divorced him in 2001. They, however, remained in amicable relationship; Cheung made her award-winning movie Clean (2004) with him.

As part of her portrayal of the drug addicted aspiring singer Emily Wang in Clean, Maggie Cheung performed songs written by David Roback of Mazzy Star.

Prior to 1988, Maggie’s screen appearance was often limited to eye candy roles. Then in many of the future interviews, Maggie frequently cited her performance in the movie As Tears Go By, her first of many collaborations with film director Wong Kar-Wai, as the piece that truly began her serious acting career.

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