Gloria Suie Chin (; November 10, 1925 – October 16, 2016), known professionally as Maylia Fong, was an American

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

Acting career

Fong, still Gloria Chin, was spotted in a

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. **Paramount Picture ...

studios canteen by the wife of producer

Sidney Buchman Sidney Robert Buchman (March 27, 1902 – August 23, 1975) was an American screenwriter and film producer who worked on about 40 films from the late 1920s to the early 1970s. He received four Oscar nominations and won once for Best Screenpla ...

while visiting her sister in California. She was cast in her first film as the character Ming Ling in the 1947 romantic film ''Singapore'', starring

Ava Gardner Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' att ...

and

Fred MacMurray Frederick Martin MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film le ...

. After a successful reception in ''Singapore'', Fong portrayed a Chinese orphan in ''

To the Ends of the Earth ''To the Ends of the Earth'' is a trilogy of nautical novels—''Rites of Passage'' (1980), ''Close Quarters'' (1987), and ''Fire Down Below'' (1989)—by British author William Golding. Set on a former British man-of-war transporting migrant ...

'' in 1948 starring

Dick Powell Richard Ewing Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility and successfully transform ...

and

Signe Hasso Signe Eleonora Cecilia Hasso ( Larsson; 15 August 1915 – 7 June 2002) was a Swedish actress. Early life Hasso was born in the Kungsholmen parish of Stockholm in 1915. Her father and grandfather died when she was four, and her mother, gran ...

. Fong then appeared in '' Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture'' (1949), '' Chinatown at Midnight'' (1949), '' Call Me Mister'' (1951) and ''Return to Paradise'' (1953). She was one of the few Asian-American actresses working in Hollywood at the time. She was referred to as the “first Chinese starlet since

Anna May Wong Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese American actress to gain internat ...

” by Paramount Pictures official studio publicity.

As restaurateur

Fong and her husband successfully ran a chain of Chinese restaurants in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

called Ah Fong. In 1949, they had saved up enough money to open their first restaurant location in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

, California, on Vine Street. By 1971, the chain had locations in Hollywood,

Anaheim Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, part of the Greater Los Angeles area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the tenth-most ...

, Encino, Westwood and

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

. In 1984, the restaurant received a favorable recommendation in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' as a place for Mother's Day lunch. She and her husband stopped managing the chain in 1985, shortly before her husband's death in 1987. In 1987, only one location remained in

and was being managed by a relative.

Personal life

While visiting her sister in Los Angeles in 1947 Chin met her future husband,

Benson Fong Benson Fong (; October 10, 1916 – August 1, 1987) was an American character actor. Born in Sacramento, California, Fong was from a mercantile family of Chinese extraction. After graduating from high school in Sacramento, he studied briefly i ...

. The pair wanted to get married, but they needed a steady income, so they started a chain of restaurants called Ah Fong (亞方). After her last film in 1953, ''Return to Paradise'', Fong retired from acting to focus on her family. She had five children with her husband Benson. Their names are Cynthia Fong (b. 1948), Preston Oden Fong (b. February 1950), Lori Fong (b. 1951), Pamela Fong (b. 1953), and Lisa Fong (b. 1957). Three of her five children (Pamela, Kwong, and Lisa) are also actors. Fong also had nine grandchildren at the time of her death in 2016.

Death

Fong died in her sleep at her home in

Costa Mesa, California Costa Mesa (; Spanish language, Spanish for "coastal tableland") is a city in Orange County, California, United States. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to an urban area including ...

, on October 16, 2016. She was survived by her five children and nine grandchildren. Per her last wishes, she was

cremated Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a corpse through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India, Nepal, and ...

and her ashes scattered at sea.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{authority control 1925 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Detroit American actresses of Chinese descent American women restaurateurs American restaurateurs Paramount Pictures contract players American film actresses 20th-century American businesswomen 20th-century American businesspeople