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A quarter-dollar coin featuring a profile of
Wong with her signature bangs and long fingernails will begin
circulating on Tuesday as part of the American Women Quarters
Program, the U.S. Mint said in a statement.
"Along with the hard work, determination and skill Anna May Wong
brought to the profession of acting, I think it was her face and
expressive gestures that really captivated movie audiences, so I
included these elements," said Mint designer Emily Damstra, who
helped create the coin.
Wong was born in 1905 in Los Angeles as Wong Liu Tsong. She was
cast in her first role as an extra in the film "The Red Lantern"
in 1919 at age 14 and her first leading role in 1922 in the "The
Toll of the Sea".
She went on to appear in more than 60 films including one of the
first movies made in Technicolor. She became the first Asian
American lead actor in a U.S. television show for her role in
"The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong" in 1951.
Despite her success, Wong faced anti-Asian discrimination and
racism in Hollywood where she was typecast, underpaid and passed
up for leading roles, forcing her to go to Europe to act in
films, and to London and New York to perform in theater. Wong
died in 1961.
"The fifth coin in our American Women Quarters Program honors
Anna May Wong, a courageous advocate who championed for
increased representation and more multi-dimensional roles for
Asian American actors," Mint Director Ventris Gibson said.
Author and civil rights champion Maya Angelou and astronaut
Sally Ride, the first American woman to go into space, have also
been honored with coins in the series.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago, Editing by Angus
MacSwan)
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