Thuy Trang

Thuy Trang (Vietnamese: Thùy Trang, December 14, 1973 - September 3, 2001) was a Vietnamese American actress. Trang was of Vietnamese, Chinese, and French descent^{[citation needed]}.

Early life

Trang's father was a soldier in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and was defending the capital Saigon from the Communist North Vietnamese Army and their Viet Cong agents during the Fall of Saigon. The Communist forces overcame his battalion, which was low on ammunition and air support, during a fierce battle. He decided to return home to retrieve his family, but the route was blocked by the North Vietnamese Army. Fearing for his life, he left South Vietnam and was given political asylum by the United States. He vowed to bring his family to the United States and work hard to contact U.S. government officials to politically pressure the Communist government of Vietnam.

In 1975 the rest of the family (Thuy, her mother, two brothers and a sister) were forced to flee Saigon and in 1979 they secretly boarded a cargo ship along with hundreds of other persecuted Southern Vietnamese traveling to Hong Kong, with the ultimate aim of reaching the United States. Thuy herself was very ill at the time and almost didn't make it.

Upon arrivial in Hong Kong, Thuy's father was contacted, who petitioned the United States government for political asylum for his family.

After about a year living in a Hong Kong detention camp, Thuy and her family were reunited in Little Saigon, California in 1980. The reunion would be short lived though as her father would pass from cancer in 1982. Thuy began to study Kung Fu around the age of nine.

Thuy graduated from Banning High School and earned a scholarship to study civil engineering at the University of California, Irvine planning to follow her father and older siblings. However around 1992 she was approached by a talent scout which changed her plans.

Acting career

Through the talent scout she got small roles in a couple of TV commercials/advertisements before getting her first major role in 1993 when she landed the role of Trini Kwan, the Yellow Ranger, on the original cast of the TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Trang was on the show for about one and a half seasons. She left the show along with Austin St. John and Walter Emanuel Jones (it is rumored they left because of pay reasons), with whom she became very good friends and was replaced by Karan Ashley. She went on to play roles in the movies The Crow: City of Angels as Kali and Spy Hard as a masseuse both in 1996 and was set to appear in Cyberstrike, which never entered production. Trang also appeared in a video documentary called the The Encyclopaedia of Martial Arts in 1995 as an interviewee.

Death

Trang died at the age of 27 in a car accident on September 3, 2001 near San Francisco, California. She and former actress/model Angela Rockwood-Nguyen, to whom Trang was to be a bridesmaid to later that year, were passengers in a car travelling on Interstate 5 between San Francisco and Los Angeles (they were returning from visiting Angela's planned maid of honor) when the driver (another of Angela's bridesmaids) of the vehicle she was riding in lost control. The car swerved violently across the road before hitting the roadside rock face and flipping several times before hitting the safety rail and plunging over the bank. Rockwood-Nguyen survived despite not wearing a seat belt, after being thrown out of the vehicle through a window before its final impact; as a result, however, she is now quadriplegic. Trang, who also wasn't wearing a seat belt, died from the injuries she sustained. The driver suffered no lasting injuries but it hasn't been confirmed whether she was wearing a seatbelt or not.

Her Power Rangers co-stars Amy Jo Johnson, Austin St. John, David Yost and Walter Jones, attended the funeral (which Johnson spoke at), a traditional Buddhist ceremony, held on September 10 at the Peek Family Funeral Home in Westminster, California.^{[citation needed]}

Trivia

• During 1984, Trang (along with Persia White of Girlfriend's fame) played a small role in an advertisement for Scientology, though Trang herself was Buddhist.
• It is believed that Trang starred in a local public broadcast about racism.
• Trang could be seen much of the time wearing the same necklace, both on and off screen, which is believed to be a Buddhist amulet.
• The episode Circuit Unsure of Power Rangers: Time Force was dedicated to her memory.

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