Brigitte Lin Chinghsia Chinese 林青霞 pinyin Lín Qīngxiá born 3 November 1954 is a Taiwanese actress She was a popular actress regarded as an icon of Chinese cinema who acted in both Taiwanese and Hong Kong films She retired in 1994 although she had a minor role in the 1998 film Bishonen She was born in Taipei and was discovered in 1972 by a film producer and first appeared in many Taiwanese romance films based on the novels of Chiung Yao Her movie debut is in Chuangwai She later switched over to making movies in Hong Kong At the height of her popularity she was arguably one of the most soughtafter actresses in the Chinese film industry She starred in more than 100 movies In Hong Kong movies Lin made a career of playing transgender roles in Peking Opera Blues she plays a tomboy who dresses in male Western clothes in New Dragon Gate Inn she is a woman who dresses as a man and in Swordsman II and III she plays a male character who castrates himself for power and so is now slowly turning into a woman She had a good working relationship with Tsui Hark acting in many of the films he directed like Peking Opera Blues and produced Swordsman II She married businessman Michael Ying in 1994 and left the film industry She has two daughters born in 1997 and 2001 She made her first public appearance since her marriage at a screening of Ashes of Time Redux at the 2008 New York Film Festival Description above from the Wikipedia article Brigitte Lin licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia