LAST Monday, Malaysian beauty queen turned Hollywood actress Michelle Yeoh won the Oscar trophy for Best Actress for the movie “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” becoming the first Asian woman to win in the category.
The 60-year-old Yeoh scored a 3-peat as Best Actress for the said movie that also won the Oscar Best Picture, following wins in the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards.
Michelle received her Oscar trophy from Halle Berry who was also a former beauty queen and Oscar Best Actress for “Monster’s Ball” in 2001, the first black woman to achieve the feat.
Traditionally, the Oscar for Best Actress trophy is presented by the previous year’s Best Actor but Halle presented the award to Yeoh in lieu of last year’s winner Will Smith, who was banned from the Oscars and all Academy Awards-related events after slapping host Chris Rock at last year’s live show.
Halle was visibly filled with emotion as she handed the trophy to Michelle, only the second woman of color to win the Oscar Best Actress plum.
Aside from the Oscar milestones, Michelle and Halle have two more things in common: They both competed for Miss World in the 1980s and became Bond girls.
Michelle was a 21-year-old, 5’5″ charmer from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia when she competed and won the Miss Malaysia World pageant in 1983. She competed for the 33rd Miss World in London but did not make it to the first cut of 15 semifinalists; she was ranked 18th overall.
The following year, Michelle won as Miss Moomba International 1984 in Melbourne, Australia. The pageant was originally named as Queen of the Pacific of which two Pinays have won: Ma. Rita “Baby” Santiago in 1968 and Nelia Sancho in 1971.
Halle was a 20-year-old, 5’7” native of Cleveland, Ohio when she won as Miss Ohio USA in 1986 and placed first runner-up to Christy Fichtner in Miss USA 1986.
She went on to represent the USA at the 36th Miss World in London and finished sixth out of 7 finalists, including winner Giselle La Ronde from Trinidad and Tobago.
Michelle and Halle became leading ladies to Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond – Michelle as Wai Lin, a skilled agent of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, Bond’s ally in “Tomorrow Never Dies” in 1997; and Halle as Jinx Johnson, an NSA agent in “Die Another Day” in 2002.
