Lucille Soong (born September 5,1935) is a Chinese-American actress. In the 1960s she occasionally worked under the stage name Soong Ling. She is best known for her role as Jenny Huang in the television series Fresh Off the Boat (2015–2020). She has appeared in films and television shows since 1959,and is the author of the autobiography Wild Orchid:From Beijing to La-La Land.
She was born to a wealthy family in Tianjin,China. She and her family suffered under political changes imposed following the Chinese Communist Revolution,and at age 21 she managed to move to Hong Kong during a brief relaxation of border controls due to the Hundred Flowers Campaign.[2]
Career
In Hong Kong she was discovered by Shaw Brothers Studio while out shopping. They recognized her capabilities and classic Chinese beauty,and signed her to an acting contract,but she convinced Run Run Shaw to tear up the agreement after she was introduced to the producers for British director Lewis Gilbert's 1959 film Ferry to Hong Kong starring Orson Welles. Though an uncredited role,it led to more work from international studios beginning with an American-Japanese movie,filmed in 1959 and released six years later as Three Weeks of Love,in which she played the girlfriend of leading man Tony Russel's character.[4][2]
In 1962 she moved to England,by way of Jamaica where she had run a tourist gift shop for several months. In London she took modeling classes and began networking with film producers and directors,but within two months she was unexpectedly discovered again by an agent who pursued her down the street and asked her to appear in the movie 55 Days at Peking to be filmed in Madrid,Spain. White actors were cast in the main Chinese roles,while she had a non-speaking part as a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Dowager Cixi played by Dame Flora Robson.[4][2]
Lucille Song in Look magazine,January 29,1963,modeling Dynasty of Hong Kong fashions on the Madrid set of 55 Days at Peking (credited as Soong Ling).
As part of the movie's publicity,she appeared in a photo spread in the American magazine Look,modeling clothing designed by Dynasty of Hong Kong on the film set.[5] The publicity department also organized a "Miss Oriental Contest" competition for Chinese women in Spain. She won,and was crowned "Señorita Oriente". Returning to London,in 1963 she became the first Chinese model in the English Models Directory,and pursued careers in modelling and acting. [4][2]
While living in London from 1962 to 1973 she was in twenty-seven movies and TV shows. For some of those roles she was credited under the stage name "Soong Ling". But as time went on she was more often credited as "Lucille Soong",a name she first adopted in China,and it was under that name she appeared in newspaper publicity articles,gossip columns,and photographs while socializing with the rich and famous amidst London's Swinging Sixties.[2]
She moved to the United States in 1973,where she "broke into the acting world in Hollywood and joined the Screen Actors Guild after 19 years of struggle". Unknown and initially unwelcome there,during that time she relied on funding from her London properties,opened a clothing store,worked as a realtor,became a sculptor —producing alabaster artwork exhibited and sold in New York and California —and maintained an active social and networking life. But in the last six of those years she finally obtained an agent,studied acting,and made a concerted effort to reenter the field.[2]
Her American acting career began with a small role in an AT&T commercial in 1991. She then won the role of Popo in the 1993 film The Joy Luck Club. Feeling unprepared to portray a grandmother or any woman that much older than herself,she independently worked with three acting coaches. That led to a new career portraying more women of that type. However,aside from small roles in three 1999 films,including The Corruptor,for several years she had difficulty being cast in more movies or in any episodic television shows,because her refined looks,bearing,and clothing did not match casting directors' expectations for older Asian immigrant women. She then altered her hair,makeup,clothing,and acting to play to that typecasting,soon winning a role as a funny character in the independent film Nora's Hair Salon.[2][6]
With that breakthrough,she found her niche in comedy and was booked on episodes of the popular sitcoms Dharma &Greg,According to Jim,and The King of Queens,and in the 2003 film Freaky Friday with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. Branching out,she was also in the 2006 action movie Mission Impossible III and in a recurring role on the Showtime drama series Huff,as well as other films and shows. Soon she was once again being recognized in public and approached for autographs and photos. The recognition and fan mail increased after she was cast as Yao Lin,the housekeeper of Eva Longoria's character in several episodes of Desperate Housewives.[2][6]
She continued working regularly,reprising her character Ming in Nora's Hair Salon 2:A Cut Above in 2008,playing Nhung Chan in Nine Dead in 2009,and appearing in other films and shows including the 2013 SyFy channel movie Heebie Jeebies,but her breakthrough role was her casting as the sarcastic grandmother Jenny Huang in Fresh Off The Boat from 2015 to 2020,a show not at all bound by Asian typecasting of the sort that had limited her before.[2][7][8]
She was in the 2024 Hallmark TV miniseries Holidazed,[9] and that same year it was announced she and many others from the original cast would be reprising their Freaky Friday roles in Freakier Friday,[10] which was released in August 2025.[11]
Her autobiography,Wild Orchid:From Beijing to La-La Land,was published on May 1,2024.[2]
↑ Although some websites give her birth date as August 15, 1938, the date has been published in newspapers as September 5, 1935[1] and her own autobiography confirms she was born in 1935.[2]
References
↑ "Birthdays". San Jose Mercury News. Media News Group. September 5, 2024. p.A2.
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