1. John Lone starred as Puyi in the Academy Award-winning film The Last Emperor, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.
16 Facts About John Lone
1. 2.
John Lone was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in The Moderns.
3.
John Lone was raised in an orphanage and later adopted by a woman from Shanghai.
4.
John Lone declined an offer to join a Belgian dance company and a contract to make Kung fu films, and he accepted a sponsorship by an American family.
5.
John Lone moved to Los Angeles and spent three years taking night classes at Santa Ana College to improve his English.
6.
John Lone was with the East West Players, an Asian-American theatre organization, for 10 years before Mako offered him a role as an Asian emigrant trying to assimilate in David Henry Hwang's first play FOB.
7.
John Lone starred alongside Tzi Ma and his performance garnered him an Obie Award in 1981.
8.
In 1985, John Lone played the gang leader Joey Tai in Michael Cimino's Year of the Dragon, for which he was nominated the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.
9.
Bertolucci met John Lone while casting in Los Angeles and chose him as Puyi at first sight.
10.
John Lone portrayed Puyi at different stages of his life, from an 18-year-old to a man in his sixties.
11.
John Lone was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama at the 45th Golden Globe Awards in 1988 for his performance.
12.
In 1987, David Henry Hwang and John Dexter were casting for Hwang's play M Butterfly.
13.
Hwang knew of John Lone's Peking opera training and thought of him for the part of Song Liling, an opera singer.
14.
John Lone sent him a copy of the script, but Lone was too busy to respond.
15.
John Lone played the Qianlong Emperor in the 30-episode television drama series Qianlong and the Fragrant Concubine in 2004.
16.
John Lone appeared in the title role of Kangxi Emperor, in Records of Kangxi's Travel Incognito, a Chinese television series about the Manchu-ruling Qing Empire monarch.