Jeanette Lin Tsui was born in Shanghai in 1936 as Tsang Yee-cheng, with family roots in Zhongshan, Guangdong, and was the younger sister of the actor Tsang Kong. She moved to Hong Kong with her family in 1949 and attended St Stephen's Girls' College. In 1953, aged seventeen, she joined Liberty Film Company and took the stage name Lin Tsui; her debut, Sweet Seventeen (1954), directed by Chun Kim, made her a star and the studio's mainstay, earning her the nickname the students' sweetheart and, because of her unbroken run of films, that of 'Miss No'. During her three-year contract with Liberty she headlined many pictures and was also loaned out to other studios for further films such as The Girl Who Changed (Hua Shen Gu Niang). In 1957 she moved to the Motion Picture and General Investment company (Cathay), and Our Sister Hedy that year was such a success that it won her Best Actress at the 5th Asian Film Festival in 1958. Fresh and vivacious and equally convincing as heroine or villain, she headlined many popular romantic films and ranked among the top Mandarin stars of the 1950s and 60s, her career spanning both Cantonese and Mandarin pictures. In 1959 she married the director Chun Kim, with whom she had a son, David Chan, and the couple separated in 1967; in 1969 she married the actor Jimmy Wang Yu, with whom she had a daughter, Linda Wong, who became a singer. She founded Zhenna Film Company in 1975 and later moved briefly to the United States, returning to Hong Kong television in the 1990s. She died of an asthma attack on 22 February 1995.
Lin Tsui rose to fame with a vivacious, fresh image and became a youth idol of the 1950s. Our Sister Hedy opened the Mandarin film market to her and won her the Asian Film Festival's Best Actress prize; her range, equally convincing as heroine or villain and spanning both Cantonese and Mandarin pictures, set her apart among the actresses of her day.
Achievements
- 1954 · Shot to fame with her debut Sweet Seventeen and was dubbed the students' sweetheart
- 1957 · Moved to Cathay and starred in Our Sister Hedy
- 1958 · Won Best Actress at the 5th Asian Film Festival for Our Sister Hedy