Rosalind Chao

Rosalind Chao B.J.
Chao at the Just Like Heaven premiere in Los Angeles, California (September 8, 2005)
Born	(1959-09-23) September 23, 1959 (age 52) Anaheim, California, USA
Nationality	United States
Ethnicity	Chinese
Education	Bachelor of Journalism
Alma mater	Marywood School University of Southern California Pomona College
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1972–present
Spouse	Simon Templeman

Rosalind Chao ( /ˈrɒzəlɪnd ˈtʃaʊ/;^[1] born September 23, 1959 (1959-09-23))^[2][3] is a Chinese American actress. Chao's most prolific roles have been as a star of CBS' AfterMASH portraying South Korean refugee Soon-Lee Klinger for both seasons, and the recurring character Keiko O'Brien with 27 appearances on the syndicated science fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Chao is married to voice actor Simon Templeman.^[2]

Early life

Born in Anaheim, California as a first-generation Californian of Chinese descent,^[4][5] Chao's parents ran a successful Chinese American pancake restaurant, Chao's, across the street from Disneyland, and employed her there from an early age.^[5] After moving from Garden Grove to Villa Park, California, Chao was enrolled at Marywood, an all-girls school where she was the only non-Caucasian student.^[6] She graduated from Pomona College in 1978.^[7]

Career

Chao's parents were instrumental in her decision to pursue acting;^[4] she began at the age of five in a California-based Peking opera traveling company at the instigation of her parents who were already heavily involved, and during the summers they sent her to Taiwan to further develop her acting.^[6] She later performed in television commercials and guest starred on TV series in her teenage years. Her first acting role was in the CBS sitcom Here's Lucy, but she was first noticed performing in another CBS sitcom: 1972's short-lived Anna and the King as the eponymous king's (Yul Brynner) eldest daughter.^[2]

Dropping out of acting, Chao enrolled in the communications department at the University of Southern California where she earned her degree in journalism. However, after spending a year as a radio newswriting intern at the CBS-owned Hollywood radio station KNX,^[6] she soon returned to acting.^[2][4]

Re-commitment

Remembering Chao from Anna and the King,^[4] television producer Burt Metcalfe provided her big break with the role of Soon-Lee, a South Korean refugee, in the final episodes of the TV series M*A*S*H.^[2] Soon-Lee married longtime starring character Maxwell Klinger (Jamie Farr) in the series finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen",^[8] the most-watched television episode of all time (as of 2010^[update]). Chao continued playing the character in the M*A*S*H sequel: 1983's AfterMASH, her first role billed at co-starring status.^[9]

Post-M*A*S*H

Chao regularly portrayed the Japanese exo-botanist Keiko O'Brien (née Ishikawa) on both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) with eight appearances in the former and 19 in the latter before DS9's end in 1999.^[10] In 2010 a preliminary casting memo for The Next Generation from 1987 was published, revealing that Chao was originally considered for the part of Enterprise security chief Tasha Yar.^[11]

Performance credits

Television

Film

Theatre

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rosalind Chao

• Rosalind Chao at the Internet Movie Database
• Rosalind Chao at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)