Lai Yee | 麗兒 (Marianne Quon)

From left: Joseph Sunn Jue and Lai Yee look over production material for a Grandview Film production (ca. 1946).

Lai Yee was a child when she first appeared on screen in Grandview Film’s inaugural film, Blossom Time 歌侶情潮 (1933). After acting in Hollywood films under her given name, Marianne Quon, including Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944) and China (1943), she resumed her career with Grandview at both the San Francisco and Hong Kong locations. She became a leading player in the Cantonese film industry and garnered the title, “Color Queen”, for having produced and acted in a number of color movies in the 1950s.

For an introduction to Lai Yee, see chapter six of Arthur Dong’s Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Feature Films.

Lai Yee’s story is a featured profile in Arthur Dong’s upcoming book, Grandview Films: Cinematic Crossings with Joseph Sunn Jue.

Donna Jue Siu, daughter of Lai Yee and Joseph Sunn Jue, is interviewed by writer Arthur Dong via Zoom.