Biography
Jacqui Chan was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, to a Chinese mother, Emily (née Woon-Sam), and a Chinese-Russian father, Isaac Chan, a photographer. From a young age, she aspired to be a ballet dancer, and her parents supported this by enrolling her at Elmhurst Ballet School in Camberley, Surrey. At 18, she chose to join the Windsor Repertory Company instead of pursuing a teaching course at the Royal Academy of Dancing, securing a role in The Teahouse of the August Moon. Within a few years, Chan advanced to principal dancer roles in The King and I and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She also took on dramatic parts, notably playing Gwennie Lee, the Wan Chai bar girl, in the original London production of The World of Suzie Wong. She reprised this role in the 1960 film adaptation and later starred as the lead in the play’s West End run and a 1961 Australian tour, both receiving critical praise. Earlier in her career, Chan gained attention for her close relationship with photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, later Lord Snowdon and husband of Princess Margaret, for whom she also modeled.
Throughout the 1960s, Chan frequently acted on screen, deliberately avoiding stereotypical oriental roles. Her film appearances included an Egyptian handmaiden in Cleopatra (1963), a doomed Japanese pearl diver in Krakatoa: East of Java (1968), and a jewelry shop assistant in Cruella (2021). On television, she appeared in series such as The Saint (1962), The Chinese Detective (1981), Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983), and Marco Polo (2014), where she portrayed Shakana, mother of Kaidu, the secondary antagonist. Chan also remained active in theatre and co-founded the multicultural Pan Intercultural Arts (initially called Pan Cultural Performance Project) in 1986.
