Lucy Liu, the saucy Asian actress who rose to fame as the cutthroat Ling Woo on Ally McBeal, celebrates her 41st birthday today.
Liu was born in Queens, New York by her Taiwanese parents. Before embarking on an acting career, she earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan.
Liu began acting in 1989, after auditioning for a role in the University of Michigan’s production of Alice in Wonderland during her senior year. She had small roles in films and TV, including The X-Files and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys before landing a role on Ally McBeal.
Liu originally auditioned for the role of ‘Nelle Porter’ (played by Portia de Rossi), and the character ‘Ling Woo’ was later created specifically for her. She cemented her reputation playing bad girls by portraying “Pearl”, the sadistic hit woman for the Chinese mafia in the film Payback.
Liu played Alex Munday in the Charlie’s Angels film, alongside Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz in 2000 and also teamed up with Barrymore and Diaz in the sequel, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, in 2003.
Liu next played O-Ren Ishii, alias Cottonmouth, in Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 film, Kill Bill. She won an MTV Movie Award for “Best Movie Villain” for the part.
Liu has guest starred on Ugly Betty, Sex and the City and Cashmere Mafia. In 2008, after pitching an interest in being part of the hit new show Dirty Sexy Money, the producers immediately created a role for her as a series regular.
Watch this video from Kill Bill featuring Uma Thurman’s character The Bride Vs Lucy Liu’s character O-Ren Ishii.
I’ve been a fan of Liu’s since she appeared on Ally McBeal and loved her in the Kill Bill movies and in Payback. While she doesn’t immediately come to mind as one of the sexier women on the planet, there’s nothing about her I don’t like.
Liu hasn’t been shy about gracing us with her womanly gifts, appearing in the pages of Maxim and GQ. She’s also posed nude and while those photos aren’t in the gallery below, they can be seen here, here, here and here.
Enjoy the photos and here’s hoping Lucy Liu has a very happy birthday.
I have met Lucy, talked to her for awhile. She is even more beautiful in person, very tiny. She was so nice, very normal. Seemed like a really good person.