Mai Tai Sing (December 22, 1923 – July 11, 2018) was an American actress and businesswoman. Her acting credits include the TV series ''

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

'', '' Forbidden'', and '' Strange Portrait''.

Background

She was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

as May Tsang. Most of her young years were in Hong Kong. When she was about fourteen, she and her family moved back to the California Bay area. One of her early jobs was waitressing at the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is the Chinese Empire, imperial Chinese palace, palace complex in the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City in Beijing, China. It was the residence of 24 Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasty L ...

nightclub. It was there she became interested in performing. In the early 1940s, she became a chorus girl there. She met Wilbur and Jessie Tai Sing, a dancing duo. Later she replaced Jessie. By 1942, she was married to Wilbur Tai Sing and had two children to him. In the 1960s she became romantically involved with actor

Jeffrey Hunter Jeffrey Hunter (born Henry Herman McKinnies Jr.; November 25, 1926 – May 27, 1969) was an American film and television actor and producer known for his roles in films such as ''The Searchers'' and ''King of Kings (1961 film), King of Ki ...

. An article in ''

The Milwaukee Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper and also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely read. It was purchased by the G ...

'' said that they were to be married. At this time they had been working together in the film '' Strange Portrait''. In the 1970s she relocated to Hawaii.

Film and television roles

Film

In 1953, she appeared in a film with

Tony Curtis Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925September 29, 2010) was an American actor with a career that spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 films, in roles co ...

, playing the part of Soo Lee. '' Forbidden'' was directed by

Rudolph Maté Rudolph Maté (born Rudolf Mayer; 21 January 1898 – 27 October 1964) was a Polish-Hungarian cinematographer who worked in Hungary, Austria, Germany, and France. He collaborated with notable directors including Fritz Lang, René Clair, and Carl ...

. Other cast included

Joanne Dru Joanne Dru (born Joan Letitia LaCock;Known as Joan Lacock in th1930 United States census/ref> January 31, 1922 – September 10, 1996) was an American film and television actress, known for such films as '' Red River'', '' She Wore a Yellow Ribb ...

and

Victor Sen Yung Victor Sen Yung (born Victor Cheung Young or Sen Yew Cheung; ; October 18, 1915 – body discovered November 9, 1980) was an American character actor, best known for playing Jimmy Chan in the Charlie Chan films and Hop Sing in the western seri ...

. Her last film role was in the ill-fated ''Strange Portrait'' that starred Jeffery Hunter. In this film she played a wealthy but reclusive and insane woman living alone in a mansion who has an obsession with a portrait of her husband that had abandoned her.

Television

In the 1950s she appeared in two episodes of '' The New Adventures of China Smith'' aka ''The Affairs of China Smith'' which was an action/adventure series about an American adventurer living in Singapore. The main role was played by

Dan Duryea Dan Duryea ( , January 23, 1907 – June 7, 1968) was an American actor in film, stage, and television. Known for portraying villains, he had a long career in a variety of leading and secondary roles.Gaita, PaulDan Duryea Biography."''Turner C ...

. In the early 1960s had a recurring role as Ching Mei in the series ''Hong Kong''. She played the owner of The Golden Dragon, a supper club. The cast included

Rod Taylor Rodney Sturt Taylor (11 January 1930 – 7 January 2015) was an Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including '' Young Cassidy'' (1965), '' Nobody Runs Forever'' (1968), '' The Train Robbers'' (1973), and '' A Matt ...

and

Lloyd Bochner Lloyd Wolfe Bochner (July 29, 1924 – October 29, 2005) was a Canadian film, TV and voice actor. He appeared in many Canadian and Hollywood productions between the 1950s and 1990s, including the films '' Point Blank'' (1967), '' The Detecti ...

. She would also host

Charlie Chan Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu Police Department, Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan ...

films on channel 44, a local San Francisco television station.

Club management

She had an association with clubs that goes back to the 1940s as a chorus girl, she would eventually end up in management. One of the clubs that she ran was The Rickshaw in San Francisco. That club is known for a night when

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, us ...

and

Billy Preston William Everett Preston (September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006) was an American keyboardist, singer, and songwriter whose work encompassed R&B, rock, soul, funk, and gospel. Preston was a top session keyboardist in the 1960s, backing Little Richa ...

stopped by. She moved to Hawaii in the 1970s. Another club she managed was "Trappers", located in the Hyatt Waikiki. The club featured the Betty Loo Taylor Trio. She was hostess and manager there until her retirement in 2003 at age 79. Her retirement marked 28 years of management and hosting at Trappers and later at the Ciao Mein.

Filmography

Television

* ''Jake and the Fatman'', Eipisode: "Chinatown, My Chinatown" (1990) ... Hostess * ''Hawaii Five-O'', Episode: "Wooden Model of a Rat" (1975) ... Reporter #2 * ''Sam Benedict'' Episode: "Nothing Equals Nothing" ... Lily Sin * ''Hong Kong'', Episode: "The Runaway" (1961) ... Ching Mei * ''Hong Kong'', Episode: "Murder by Proxy" (1961) ... Ching Mei * ''Hong Kong'', Episode: "With Deadly Sorrow" (1961) ... Ching Mei * ''Hong Kong'', Episode: "The Hunted" (1961) ... Ching Mei * ''Hong Kong'', Episode: "Lesson in Fear" (1961) ... Ching Mei * ''Hong Kong'', Episode: "Suitable for Framing" (1961) ... Ching Mei * ''The New Adventures of China Smith'' Episode: "The Black Wings of the Fire Bird" (1954) ... Moonflower * ''The New Adventures of China Smith'' Episode: "The Talons of Tongking" (1954) ... Ah Chee

Film

* '' The Golden Horde'' (1951) ... Dancer * '' Forbidden'' (1953) ... Soo Lee * '' Strange Portrait'' (1966) * ''Forbidden City U.S.A '' (1988) ... Archival footage Mai Tai Sing filmography
imdb.com; accessed July 30, 2018.

Links

Mai Tai Sing Historical Essay
*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tai Sing, Mai 1923 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Oakland, California American actresses of Chinese descent American showgirls American female dancers Nightclub owners American television actresses American film actresses American expatriates in British Hong Kong