Ngoc Dan Thanh

Ngọc Đan Thanh (1952-    ) is a popular Vietnamese actress and singer.

She was born in Saigon, South Vietnam in 1952.  Her given name at birth was Lê Thị Huệ.  At the age of 14, Ngọc Đan Thanh made her television acting debut playing the role of a grieving granddaughter of the lead character, a dying woman portrayed by legendary actress Bạch Huệ, in a televised dramatic play.  At the age of 18, she enrolled at the prestigious Quốc Gia Âm Nhạc (University of Performing Arts, Saigon) and became classmates with fellow future established performing artists, Kiều Phượng Loan and Tú Trinh.  During her sophomore year, she studied Southern Vietnamese folk opera known as "cải lương".  Ngọc Đan Thanh was then recruited by various Southern Vietnamese folk opera theater troupes such as Phương Nam, Thành Công, Phụng Hảo, Mây Tần of Saigon Radio Broadcasting Network and Đài Phát Thanh Quân Đội (South Vietnam's Military Radio Broadcasting Network) and Thanh Lịch of Đài Truyền Hình Việt Nam (South Vietnam's National Television Network).  As a dramatic theater actress, she worked with various theater troupes headed by actresses Túy Hồng, Bích Thuận, Thẩm Thúy Hằng and Kim Cương, for which she was cast in such memorable parts in the televised plays, Dưới Hai Màu Áo and Lá Sầu Riêng, along with Kim Cương, Vân Hùng, Bảy Nam, Túy Hoa and Ngọc Đức.  Blessed with natural good looks, Ngọc Đan Thanh eased her way into a career in films.  In 1972, Ngọc Đan Thanh starred alongside Út Bạch Lan, Hoàng Long and Văn Ngà in the martial arts feature film, Báo Kiếm Rửa Hận Thù.  She starred in two more feature films prior to the Fall of Saigon:  Xóm Tôi (1973) directed by Lê Dân and Chàng Ngốc Gặp Hên (1974) directed by Lưu Bạch Đàn.

In the years following the Fall of Saigon, Ngọc Đan Thanh continued on with her career as a theater actress.  Her biggest success was her portrayal of Thanh Vân in the play, Tình Yêu và Lời Đáp, which ran for many months at the legendary Trần Hữu Trang Playhouse Theater and costarred Ngọc Giàu, Phương Quang and Minh Châu.  The play was so well received that a live taping was aired on Vietnamese national television during the 1980s.

Ngọc Đan Thanh and Tuấn Vũ in the music video
for the song, Bức Tâm Thư 

In 1990, Ngọc Đan Thanh fled from communist Vietnam by boat in search of freedom.  After several months spent at Pulau Bidong refugee camp in Malaysia, she resettled in Southern California.  Immediately after her arrival, Ngọc Đan Thanh was given a warm welcome by the overseas Vietnamese entertainment industry with a sold-out night held in her honor at Diamond Nightclub in Fullerton, California.  She then began collaborating with Người Đẹp Bình Dương, a prominent overseas Vietnamese music production label, as a recording artist.  Her most successful song recorded with the Người Đẹp Bình Dương label was Bức Tâm Thư (written by Lam Phương), a duet with singer Tuấn Vũ.  Ngọc Đan Thanh had also found work doing voice overs of films and dramas produced in Hong Kong and Taiwan during the 1990s alongside veteran voice over actors Ánh Hằng and Việt Thảo.

In 2004, she appeared on volume 74 of Thúy Nga's Paris By Night live show video series as an actress in a comedy skit entitled as Nỗi Lòng Người Mẹ along with Mỹ Huyền, Mạnh Quỳnh and Chí Tài.  The following year, Ngọc Đan Thanh would return to the Paris By Night stage as a singer of Southern Vietnamese folk opera, also known as "vọng cổ", in a duet with Hương Thủy.  She would be invited back by the executives at Thúy Nga to appear on two more volumes of the Paris By Night series in 2007:  as a singer of Vietnamese pop music performing with Phương Hồng Quế a medley of songs written by Nhật Trường on volume 85 filmed in Toronto, Canada and again as an actress in another comedy skit, Chồng Chúa Vợ Tôi, along with Kiều Oanh, Kiều Linh and Lê Tín on volume 90 filmed at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach, California.  From 2010 until 2016, Ngọc Đan Thanh co-hosted a total of 12 volumes of the popular live show video series produced by Asia Entertainment alongside Nam Lộc and Thùy Dương from volume 67 to volume 78.  In addition, she also performed several medleys in duets and as part of ensembles teamed up with others including her old singing partners, Phương Hồng Quế and Tuấn Vũ, as well as Trung Chỉnh, Huy Sinh and Thiên Trang.  Her accomplishments as an actress in films, as a performer of Southern Vietnamese folk opera, as a singer of Vietnamese pop music and as an emcee of variety live shows clearly are the reasons why Ngọc Đan Thanh has been considered one of the most diverse talents among Vietnamese entertainers worldwide.

Thanh Lan (left) and Ngọc Đan Thanh (right)
 at taping of Asia Entertainment's Volume 78
(Segerstrom Center of the Arts, Costa Mesa, California - August, 2016.)

 Link(s):

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