Date of Birth : Oct 10th 1966
Ling Bai joined the People’s Liberation Army in China at 14 years of age as an entertainer. She later moved to Beijing and easily gained stardom through seven feature films. It was then that Ling decided she needed to move to North America.
“Red Corner” (1997) was her breakthrough film with Richard Gere. Other feature films include “Wild Wild West” (1999) and “Anna and the King” (1999).
She began in the cult movie The Crow (1994), playing the half-sister/lover of the main villain, Top Dollar. Hu guang was her most celebrated role in the Chinese film industry, and Red Corner (1997) would be considered her break-out role in English film. She was named one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People in the World” in 1998. She appeared in Chris Isaak’s music video “Please” in 1998. She shaved off her hair, which had exceeded a length of 36 in. (91.44 cm.) for her role in Anna and the King, and is widely known in Thailand as “Tubtim”, her character’s name from the film, even though the movie is officially banned because of its depiction of the King of Siam. She filmed scenes for Star Wars: Episode III (2005) as Senator Bana Breemu, but her role was cut during editing. She claimed that this was because of her posing nude for the June 2005 issue of Playboy magazine, whose appearance on newsstands coincided with the movie’s May 2005 release, but director George Lucas denied this, stating that the cut had been made more than a year earlier. Her scenes were included in the “deleted scenes” feature of the DVD release.