Shangguan Yunzhu | |
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Autographed photo, taken in the 1940s
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Native name | 上官雲珠 |
Born | 2 March 1920 Jiangyin, Jiangsu, China |
Died | 23 November 1968 Shanghai |
(aged 48)
Cause of death | Suicide |
Residence | Wukang Mansion, Shanghai |
Other names | Wei Junluo, Wei Yajun |
Occupation | Actress |
Notable work | |
Spouse(s) |
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Children | 3 (2 sons, 1 daughter) |
Shangguan Yunzhu (Chinese: 上官雲珠; Wade–Giles: Shang-kuan Yün-chu; 2 March 1920 – 23 November 1968) was a Chinese actress active from the 1940s to the 1960s. She was considered one of the most talented and versatile actresses in China, and was named one of the 100 best actors of the 100 years of Chinese cinema in 2005.
Born Wei Junluo, Shangguan Yunzhu fled to Shanghai when her hometown Jiangyin was attacked by the Japanese. In Shanghai she became a drama and film actress, and her career took off after the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. She starred in several prominent leftist films such as Spring River Flows East, Crows and Sparrows, and Women Side by Side. After the Communist victory in mainland China in 1949, her career was set back when her husband was embroiled in the anti-capitalist Five-anti Campaign, but she later portrayed a wide variety of characters in many films.
Shangguan Yunzhu was married three times and had three children, but all her marriages ended in divorce. She was said to have had an affair with Mao Zedong, for which she was severely persecuted by the followers of Mao's wife Jiang Qing during the Cultural Revolution, leading to her suicide in November 1968.
Shangguan Yunzhu was born in 1920 in the town of Changjing (长泾) in Jiangyin, Jiangsu province. Her birth name was Wei Junluo (Chinese: 韋均犖), and she also used the name Wei Yajun (韋亞君). She was the fifth and youngest child of her parents. In 1936 she married Zhang Dayan (张大炎), an art teacher and a friend of her brother's, and soon gave birth to a son named Zhang Qijian (张其坚) at the age of 17.