Marrie Lee

Doris Young Siew Keen (born November 25, 1959) is a Singaporean director, producer, writer and actress. Given the stage name Marrie Lee, she was best known for her role as Cleopatra Wong in the late 1970s.

Marrie Lee
Born
Doris Young Siew Keen

(1959-11-25) November 25, 1959
Colony of Singapore
NationalitySingaporean
Other namesCleo
Cleopatra Wong
Alma materSt Anthony’s Convent Secondary School
Occupationhealthcare company owner, actress, writer, producer, director
Years active1976–1981
2012–present
EmployerReel Frenz Productions (founder) (2012–present)
Singapore Cinema Pte Ltd (founder) (2014–present)
Parents
  • John Young (father)
  • Mary Young (mother)
FamilyJimmy Young (brother)
Betty Young (sister)
Websitewww.cleopatrawong.com

Early life

Young was born on November 25, 1959 in Singapore to the contractor John Young and his wife Mary. She had an older brother named Jimmy and an older sister named Betty. Due to her father's work with the cinema owners and film distributors, around the very young age of four and five, Young often met Hong Kong film actors and actress while they were promoting their movie screenings in Singapore, making her considered acting as one of her life goals. Her father later died when she was six and her mother died when she was sixteen.

Career

Following her graduation from St Anthony’s Convent Secondary School, Young worked as a receptionist in a nightclub (or restaurant) at Shenton Way in about 1976, where she was discovered by a scouting team from Hong Kong and she received her first acting role, a minor role as a female detective based in Singapore for the Hong Kong film Showdown at the Equator. She would also involved in minor roles in a couple of Hong Kong-based movies.

A year later in 1977, she answered a newspaper ad that asked "Are you smart, sexy and seductive?" The ad was placed by Suarez' BAS Film Productions, which was looking for a heroine who could ride a motorcycle. She auditioned in a miniskirt and boots and won the role among the 300 hopefuls.[1]

Her screen name, Marrie Lee, was created by the producers to capitalize on the fame of the late Bruce Lee. Due to this, during her filming in some occasions, there were fans went up to her and said that they had watched all his "brother's" films. "Some fans thought that I was his younger sister," she later told The Business Times in a 2005 interview.

She made her film debut at age 18, portraying the title character Cleopatra Wong in 1978's They Call Her Cleopatra Wong, a martial arts film shot in Singapore and Philippines about a female Interpol agent written and directed by Bobby A. Suarez.

She reprised the role in 1979's Dynamite Johnson, in which she was teamed up with the 10-year-old Singaporean tae kwon do practitioner, Johnson Yap, who reprise his role as Sonny Lee respectively from The Bionic Boy, a 1978 film also written and directed by Suarez. She reprised her role for the third time in Devil's Angels, in which she led an all-female team of crimefighters in the Philippines.[2]

In the early 1980s, Young was meant to co-star in a Filipino rendition of Superman to be directed by Suarez, with actor Weng Weng as its lead. The project never materialized.[3] Her supposed reprisal as Cleopatra Wong as a supporting role on the film The Wandering Samurai was also never materialized as well.

She performed her own stunts during her filming, including jumping through a real glass window and dangling from a helicopter,[4] and sustained many injuries, including a fractured left wrist.[5]

Young retired from acting in 1981 and managed a dance troupe The Devil's Angels (named after the members from her third Cleopatra Wong film) for two years, following that she was married and started a family. She later ran a healthcare company Tisco Pte Ltd with her sister from 1989 onwards.

During the Screen Singapore festival from August 1 to 31 in 2005,[6] Young was reunited with Bobby Suarez, with Suarez himself expressed his interest in doing a Cleopatra Wong reboot.

With Suarez died of a heart attack on February 8, 2010, Young inherited the franchise rights of Cleopatra Wong and its website.[7] Also that year, Mark Hartley's documentary film Machete Maidens Unleashed! premiered. Young is interviewed in the documentary that explores exploitation films made in the Philippines in the 1970s and 1980s.[8][9][10]

In December 2012, as Marrie Lee, she started a film making hobbyist group Reel Frenz Productions, working as a director, producer and writer. She had helped produced at least 12 short films since then.

In 2013, the documentary film The Search for Weng Weng started its film festival run.[11][12][13][14] In it Young was interviewed about the actor Weng Weng who was Philippines' first international star and a unique figure in cinema being a short person who performs death defying stunts.[3]

With the help of her partner Jacqueline, she expanded her healthcare company to Hong Kong in 2014. She later established a film making company Singapore Cinema Pte Ltd in February 2015 to oversee her feature film projects.[15] Her first directorial debut feature film Certified Dead was released in 2016.[16]

Filmography

Films

[17]

Date of release Title Role Non Acting Role Note
1978 Showdown at the Equator Female Detective minor role
1978 They Call Her Cleopatra Wong Cleopatra Wong
1978 Queen Cobra Queen Cobra
1979 Dynamite Johnson Cleopatra Wong
1979 Devil's Angels Cleopatra Wong
1985 Target Scorpion Released in 1985
2016 Certified Dead Marrie Lee Director, executive producer, writer, location manager

Short films
Date of release Title Role Non Acting Role Note
2013 Rojak Opera Prince Consort Director, executive producer, writer minor role
2013 Yokai executive producer
2013 The Sound of Muse writer, director, executive producer
2013 Rojak: The Day When TV Went Insane writer, director, executive producer
2014 René writer, director, executive producer
2014 Heart Flutters writer, co-director, executive producer
2014 The Audition: Yolo writer, director, executive producer
2014 The Next Job writer, director, executive producer
2014 Choices director, executive producer
2014 Big Boys Don't Cry writer, director, executive producer
2016 Music for Her Ears writer, director
2016 Little Girl Lost writer, director
2016 Barely Naked writer, director, executive producer
2017 Lemonaid Party guest 3 director, executive producer Cameo
2019 7 Bullets director

Documentaries
Date of release Title Role Non Acting Role Note
2010 Machete Maidens Unleashed! Interviewee
2013 The Search For Weng Weng Interviewee

References
  1. Paul, Louis (29 Nov 2014). Tales from the Cult Film Trenche. United States: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 158. ISBN 9780786484027.
  2. Bionic Boy and Cleopatra Wong: Singapore's Heroic Duo, Southeast Asia Cinematheque, 2005.
  3. Leavold, Andrew. The Search for Weng Weng (DVD). USA: Wild Eye Releasing. 760137943594.
  4. "Smash! Bang! Pow!", Business Times, July 1, 2005 (retrieved on December 11, 2006, via Singapore Rebel).
  5. "What Sun Chlorella users say". Archived from the original on October 9, 1999. Retrieved 2013-09-26.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) (retrieved from Google cache on December 11, 2006).
  6. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!". www.nas.gov.sg. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  7. "Cleopatra Wong International". Cleopatra Wong International.
  8. HK Film Fest Picks:Final Day- Scene Asia - WSJ
  9. Machete Maidens Unleashed: When B movies invaded the Philippines - The Globe and Mail
  10. Hartley, Mark. Machete Maiden Unleashed! (DVD). Australia: Umbrella Entertainment. 9344256002045.
  11. Harvey, Dennis (2015-02-26). "Film Review: 'The Search for Weng Weng'". Variety. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  12. Minutes, 2014 | 92. "Search For Weng Weng, The". Retrieved 2020-02-22.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. Team, Screen (2014-07-29). "Today at Fantasia". Cult MTL. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  14. Wilson, Jake (2014-08-07). "In search of Weng Weng, the pint-sized James Bond of Filipino film". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  15. "Singapore Cinema presents Certified Dead". singaporecinema.com. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  16. "SINDie: Who is Cleopatra Wong? An interview with Marrie Lee". Sinema.SG – Singapore Film News Portal since 2006. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  17. "Cleopatra Wong....Filmography". www.cleopatrawong.com. Retrieved 2018-11-20.

Bibliography
  • Paul, Louis (2008). "Marrie Lee". Tales From the Cult Film Trenches; Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. pp. 157–163. ISBN 978-0-7864-2994-3.
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