Hollywood trailblazer Anna May Wong to be first Asian American featured on U.S. currency
LOS ANGELES, Oct 21 (Reuters) – The first Asian American featured on U.S. currency will be Hollywood legend Anna May Wong, who became the first Asian American and Asian Pacific Islander to win an Academy Award for best director in 1963 for her film “The Last Angry Man.”
Wong, who was born in Shanghai, started her movies career at MGM in the 1940s. When she was awarded the Best Director award at the Academy Awards, she told reporters she had been a refugee from the Japanese invasion of China.
Wong was interviewed for the U.S. Treasury’s Asian American Heritage Month celebration “What Makes America Great?” on Oct. 20, and will be featured on the front of the new $1 bills in 2019, the Treasury said in a statement.
Wong’s daughter, actor/director S. Epatha Merkerson, was present at the Oct. 20 event.
At the event, Treasury Under Secretary for Public Debt Todd Rosenker said the Asian American theme was one of many in the “What Makes America Great?” series, which focuses on issues ranging from civil rights to education. (Reporting by John H. Matson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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