Marrie Lee
{{Short description|Singaporean actress}}
{{Infobox person
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| name = Marrie Lee
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| birth_name = Doris Young Siew Keen
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1959|11|25}}
| birth_place = Colony of Singapore
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| nationality = Singaporean
| other_names = Cleo
Cleopatra Wong
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| alma_mater = St Anthony’s Convent Secondary School
| occupation = healthcare company owner, actress, writer, producer, director
| years_active = 1976–1981
2012–present
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| employer = Reel Frenz Productions (founder) (2012–present)
Singapore Cinema Pte Ltd (founder) (2014–present)
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| mother = Mary Young
| father = John Young
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| family = Jimmy Young (brother)
Betty Young (sister)
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| website = {{url|http://www.cleopatrawong.com}}
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Doris Young Siew Keen (born November 25, 1959) is a Singaporean director, producer, writer and actress. Given the stage name Marrie Lee, she was best known for her role as Cleopatra Wong in the late 1970s.
Early life
Young was born on November 25, 1959, in Singapore to the contractor John Young and his wife Mary. She had an older brother named Jimmy and an older sister named Betty. Due to her father's work with cinema owners and film distributors, around the age of four and five, Young often met Hong Kong film actors while they were promoting their movies in Singapore, making her consider acting as one of her life goals.
Her father died when she was six and her mother died when she was sixteen.{{cite web | url=https://www.ricemedia.co/cleopatra-wong-marrie-lee-singapore-film/ | title=Cleopatra Wong is the Forgotten Movie Star That Singapore Needs Right Now | date=8 October 2021 }}
Career
Following her graduation from St Anthony’s Convent Secondary School, Young worked as a restaurant usher in a nightclub or restaurant at Shenton Way in about 1976,{{cite web | url=https://sindie3.rssing.com/chan-60389134/all_p3.html | title=SINdie }} where she was discovered by a scouting team from Hong Kong and received her first acting role, a minor role as a female detective based in Singapore for the Hong Kong film Showdown at the Equator.
A year later in 1977, she answered a newspaper ad that asked "Are you smart, sexy and seductive?". The ad was placed by Bobby A. Suarez' BAS Film Productions, looking for a heroine who could ride a motorcycle. Lee won the role among 300 hopefuls.{{Cite book|title=Tales from the Cult Film Trenche|last=Paul|first=Louis|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc.|date=29 Nov 2014|isbn=9780786484027|location=United States|pages=158}} Aged 18, Young shot to fame portraying the title character Cleopatra Wong in 1978's They Call Her Cleopatra Wong, a martial arts film shot in Singapore and Philippines about a female Interpol agent written and directed by Suarez.
Her screen name, Marrie Lee, was created by the producers to capitalize on the fame of the late Bruce Lee. Due to this, during filming there were fans who said they'd watched all of her "brother's" films. "Some fans thought that I was his younger sister", she later told The Business Times in a 2005 interview.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}
She reprised the role in 1979's Dynamite Johnson, in which she teamed with 10-year-old Singaporean Taekwondo practitioner Johnson Yap, who reprised his role as Sonny Lee respectively from The Bionic Boy, a 1978 film also written and directed by Suarez. She reprised her role for the third time in Devil's Angels, in which she led an all-female team of crimefighters in the Philippines.[http://www.theseac.com/ Bionic Boy and Cleopatra Wong: Singapore's Heroic Duo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060430000716/http://theseac.com/ |date=2006-04-30 }}, Southeast Asia Cinematheque, 2005. She performed her own stunts during her filming, including jumping through a real glass window and dangling from a helicopter,[http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/2005/07/spore-make-amends-with-film_05.html "Smash! Bang! Pow!"], Business Times, July 1, 2005 (retrieved on December 11, 2006, via Singapore Rebel). and sustained many injuries, including a fractured left wrist.{{cite web|url=http://www.sunchlorella.net/usersdialogue.htm |title=What Sun Chlorella users say |accessdate=2013-09-26 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/19991009142617/http://www.sunchlorella.net/usersdialogue.htm |archivedate=October 9, 1999 }} (retrieved from Google cache on December 11, 2006).
In the early 1980s, Suarez was developing a film where Young would co-star with Weng Weng. The project never materialized.{{cite AV media|title=The Search for Weng Weng|date=|last=Leavold|first=Andrew|type=DVD|language=English|publisher=Wild Eye Releasing|location=USA|id=760137943594}} Her supposed reprisal as Cleopatra Wong as a supporting role on the film The Wandering Samurai also never materialized. After her first three films, Suarez pleaded with her to sign a contract to make ten more movies, but she turned it down. A lead role as Charlie Chan's daughter Ling Chan in the American film Charlie Chan's Number One Daughter also failed to materialise due to the Hollywood labor strikes in 1980 and 1981.
Young retired from acting in 1981 and managed a dance troupe, The Devil's Angels (named after the members from her third Cleopatra Wong film), for two years, while starting a family. At some point when she was offered an acting opportunity, but her husband said no. She later ran a healthcare company Tisco Pte Ltd with her sister Betty from 1989 onwards.
During the Screen Singapore festival from August 1 to 31 in 2005,{{Cite web|url=http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/speeches/view-html?filename=2005070102.htm|title=HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!|website=www.nas.gov.sg|access-date=2018-11-19|archive-date=2018-11-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119091917/http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/speeches/view-html?filename=2005070102.htm|url-status=dead}} Young was reunited with Bobby Suarez, where Suarez himself expressed his interest in doing a Cleopatra Wong reboot.
When Suarez died of a heart attack on February 8, 2010, Young inherited the franchise rights of Cleopatra Wong and its website.{{Cite web|url=http://cleopatrawong.com/|title=Cleopatra Wong International|website=Cleopatra Wong International}} Also that year, Mark Hartley's documentary film Machete Maidens Unleashed! premiered. Young is interviewed in the documentary that explores exploitation films made in the Philippines in the 1970s and 1980s.[https://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2011/04/05/hk-film-fest-picks-final-day/ HK Film Fest Picks:Final Day- Scene Asia - WSJ][https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/machete-maidens-unleashed-when-b-movies-invaded-the-philippines/article628009/ Machete Maidens Unleashed: When B movies invaded the Philippines - The Globe and Mail]{{cite AV media|url=|title=Machete Maiden Unleashed!|date=|last=Hartley|first=Mark|type=DVD|language=English|publisher=Umbrella Entertainment|trans-title=|location=Australia|time=|access-date=|id=9344256002045|isbn=|oclc=|quote=|medium=}}
In December 2012, Young started a filmmaking hobbyist group, Reel Frenz Productions,{{Cite web |date=2017-02-28 |title=Who is Cleopatra Wong? An Interview with Marrie Lee {{!}} SINdie |url=https://www.sindie.sg/2016/06/who-is-cleopatra-wong-interview-with.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228135656/https://www.sindie.sg/2016/06/who-is-cleopatra-wong-interview-with.html |archive-date=28 February 2017 |access-date=2023-01-03}} working as a director, producer and writer. She has helped produce at least 12 short films since then.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
In 2013, Young was interviewed in the documentary The Search for Weng Weng.{{Cite web|last1=Harvey|first1=Dennis|date=2015-02-26|title=Film Review: 'The Search for Weng Weng'|url=https://variety.com/2015/film/reviews/film-review-the-search-for-weng-weng-1201438775/|access-date=2021-07-25|website=Variety|language=en-US}}{{cite AV media|title=The Search for Weng Weng|last=Leavold|first=Andrew|type=DVD|language=en|publisher=Wild Eye Releasing|location=USA|id=760137943594}}
With the help of her partner Jacqueline, she expanded her healthcare company to Hong Kong in 2014. She later established a filmmaking company Singapore Cinema Pte Ltd in February 2015 to oversee her feature film projects.{{Cite web|url=http://singaporecinema.com/|title=Singapore Cinema presents Certified Dead|website=singaporecinema.com|access-date=2018-11-14}} Her first directorial debut feature film Certified Dead was released in 2016.{{Cite web|url=http://www.sinema.sg/2016/06/29/sindie-who-is-cleopatra-wong-an-interview-with-marrie-lee/|title=SINDie: Who is Cleopatra Wong? An interview with Marrie Lee|website=Sinema.SG – Singapore Film News Portal since 2006|date=29 June 2016 |language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-14}}
Family
Young had been married and divorced three times.{{Cite web |date=2021-10-08 |title=Cleopatra Wong Is the Forgotten Movie Star That Singapore Needs Right Now |url=https://www.ricemedia.co/cleopatra-wong-marrie-lee-singapore-film/ |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=RICE |language=en-GB}} Film director and writer of Shirkers Sandi Tan is her ex-stepdaughter.{{cite tweet|number=1027662937194811393|user=sanditan|title=#TBT French VHS of my ex-stepmom Marrie Lee's THEY CALL HER CLEOPATRA WONG (1978) had many things wrong with it inc… |date=9 August 2018}}
Filmography
=Films=
| class="wikitable"
!Date of release !Title !Role !Note !Ref |
| rowspan="3" |1978
|Showdown at the Equator |Female Detective | | |
| They Call Her Cleopatra Wong
| | |
| Queen Cobra
|Queen Cobra | | |
| rowspan="2" |1979
|Dynamite Johnson |Cleopatra Wong | | |
| Devil's Angels
|Cleopatra Wong | | |
| 1985
|Target Scorpion | | | |
| 2016
|Certified Dead | |Director, executive producer, writer, location manager | |
=Short films=
| class="wikitable"
!Date of release !Title !Role !Note |
| rowspan="4" |2013
|Rojak |Opera Prince Consort |Director, executive producer, writer |
| Yokai
| |executive producer |
| The Sound of Muse
| |writer, director, executive producer |
| Rojak: The Day When TV Went Insane
| |writer, director, executive producer |
| rowspan="6" |2014
|René | |writer, director, executive producer |
| Heart Flutters
| |writer, co-director, executive producer |
| The Audition: Yolo
| |writer, director, executive producer |
| The Next Job
| |writer, director, executive producer |
| Choices
| |director, executive producer |
| Big Boys Don't Cry
| |writer, director, executive producer |
| rowspan="3" |2016
|Music for Her Ears | |writer, director |
| Little Girl Lost
| |writer, director |
| Barely Naked
| |writer, director, executive producer |
| 2017
|Lemonaid | Party guest 3 | director, executive producer, cameo |
| 2019
|7 Bullets | | director |
=Documentaries=
| class="wikitable"
!Date of release !Title !Note |
| 2010
| |
| 2013
| |
References
Bibliography
- {{cite book|last=Paul|first=Louis|year=2008|title=Tales From the Cult Film Trenches; Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema|chapter=Marrie Lee|pages=157–163|publisher=Wayne State University Press|location=Detroit|isbn=978-0-7864-2994-3}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=0497838|name=Marrie Lee}}
- {{URL|https://www.reelfrenz.com}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Marrie}}
Category:Singaporean film actresses
Category:Singaporean stunt performers
Category:Singaporean people of Chinese descent
Category:Singaporean film directors