Shangguan Yunzhu

Shangguan Yunzhu (; 2 March 1920 – 23 November 1968) was a Chinese actress active from the 1940s to the 1960s. She was considered one of the most talented and versatile actresses in China, and was named one of the 100 best actors of the 100 years of Chinese cinema in 2005.

Born Wei Junluo, she fled to Shanghai when her hometown Jiangyin was attacked by the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In Shanghai she became a drama and film actress, and her career took off after the end of the war. She starred in several prominent leftist films such as Spring River Flows East, Crows and Sparrows, and Women Side by Side. After the Communist victory in mainland China in 1949, her career was set back when her husband was embroiled in the anti-capitalist Five-anti Campaign, but she later portrayed a wide variety of characters in many films.

Shangguan was married three times and had three children, but all her marriages ended in divorce. She was said to have had an affair with Mao Zedong, for which she was severely persecuted by the followers of Mao's wife Jiang Qing during the Cultural Revolution, leading to her suicide in November 1968.

Early life Wei Junluo was born in 1920 in the town of Changjing in Jiangyin, Jiangsu, Republic of China. She also used the name Wei Yajun . She was the fifth and youngest child of her parents. In 1936 she married Zhang Dayan , an art teacher and a friend of her brother's, and soon gave birth to a son named Zhang Qijian at the age of 17.

After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the invading Japanese army attacked Jiangyin in November 1937, killing one of Wei's sisters in a bombing raid. She fled to Shanghai with her family. She adjusted to her new role well, and portrayed a wide variety of characters in many films including It's My Day Off (1959), Spring Comes to the Withered Tree (1961, director Zheng Junli), Early Spring in February (1963, director Xie Tieli), and Stage Sisters (1965, director Xie Jin). On 10 January 1956, Shangguan and Mao had a private meeting set up by Shanghai mayor Chen Yi,

Selected filmography 1941 Fallen Rose (dirs. Wu Wenchao and Wen Yimin) 1947 Dream in Paradise (dir. Tang Xiaodan) 1947 Long Live the Missus! (dir. Sang Hu) 1947 Spring River Flows East (dirs. Cai Chusheng and Zheng Junli) 1948 Myriad of Lights (dir. Shen Fu) 1949 Hope in the World (dir. Shen Fu) 1949 Crows and Sparrows (dir. Zheng Junli) 1949 Women Side by Side (dir. Chen Liting) 1955 Storm on the Southern Island (dir. Bai Chen) 1959 It's My Day Off (dir. Lu Ren) 1961 Spring Comes to the Withered Tree (dir. Zheng Junli) 1963 Early Spring in February (dir. Xie Tieli) 1965 Stage Sisters (dir. Xie Jin)