LYCOS RETRIEVER 
France Nuyen
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From All Movie Guide: Born in France to Eurasian parents, actress France Nuyen made her screen bow as Liat in the 1958 film version of South Pacific. Her gamine image didn't last long...; later in 1958 she starred as the been-around heroine of the Broadway play The World of Suzie Wong. In 1960, she appeared in a recurring role on the American TV series Hong Kong, and some 25 years later could be seen on the weekly hospital drama St. Elsewhere. In the late '60s, France Nuyen was briefly the wife of actor Robert Culp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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France Nuyen makes one last try. It involves a weekend at Lake Biwa, a sort of Nipponese Grossinger's, where she has arranged for Harvey to shoot some pictures. With the rain pelting on the roof of the bungalow, she serves dinner on the floor, lets down her hair, and the background music comes to a crescendo. (The theme, mystifyingly, seems to be something that Composer Elmer Bernstein remembered from Composer Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story.-)
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Still in 1958, France made her Broadway debut, nothing less, in the title role of The World of Suzie Wong, with William Shatner. The play (about the relation between a prostitute and a painter in Hong Kong) played until 1960. At first, France learned her lines phonetically (like Bela Lugosi!), as her mastery of the English language remained awkward. A movie adaptation was soon to follow, but starring Nancy Kwan. Actually, France filmed half the movie before being replaced by producer Ray Stark, the latter preferring young and fresh talent (Kwan was 18, France 19!). A bitter disappointment.
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A few weeks after arriving in the U.S., France Nuyen was chosen to play Liat in the box office smash South Pacific. At the time, she could not speak a word of English. Fascinating excerpts from a Filmfax article by Tom Lisanti.
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French and Chinese heritage, France Nuyen was discovered while working in a bakery a few weeks after she came to the Unites States from France. 20th Century-Fox chose her to play Liat in the box office smash South Pacific (1958) before she ever learned to speak a word of English.
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After taking part in two episodes of Gunsmoke, France played in two westerns, One More Train to Rob and The White, The Yellow and the Black, directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring a samurai(!) and a valuable kidnapped horse. This eccentric spaghetti-western reunited Eli Wallach, Giuliano Gemma and Tomas Milian. The Big Game in 1972 is a sci-fi story about bounty hunters in South Africa protecting a mysterious machine that can control entire armies. In 1973, France can be seen in Battle for the Planet of the Apes, as a mutant resistant that comes close to detonate the infamous atomic bomb which would next be seen in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (or was it already seen?). This is the worst of the series, mainly for low-budget and unimaginative script reasons. Still, France looked formidable enough behind her shades.
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