Gong Li

The celebrated Chinese actress is moving into the western mainstream after making her name in the films of former partner Zhang Yimou.

She attracted global attention for her role as a prize bitch in Memoirs of a Geisha and went on to star in the big screen version of Miami Vice and Young Hannibal.

Coolly disdainful of the press, she has been compared to Greta Garbo and was named by People magazine was one of the most beautiful women in the world.

The daughter of an economics professor, she originally wanted to pursue a career as a singer but failed to get into music school.

However, she was admitted to Beijing's Central Drama Academy and was cast in director Zhang Yimou's 1987 debut Red Sorghum after he met her as a 21-year-old student.

Li - who went on to date the director - played a meek pride who flexes her muscles when she takes over her husband's winery.

In Zhang's Ju Dou she played a married woman whose affair with her husband's nephew ends in tears and she attracted a legion of admirers in 1991's Raise The Red Lantern.

She tried comedy as an avenging woman farmer in 1992's The Story of Qiu Ju and also appeared in Farewell My Concubine, directed by Zhang's Fifth Generation colleague Chen Kaige.

Zhang once again directed Gong Li in the historical epic To Live and their re-teamed to give Li a role as a nightclub singer in 1995's Shanghai Triad.

At the same time her offscreen relationship with Zhang ended and she subsequently married a Singapore tobacco magnate.

A year later, back with Chen Kaige, she made Temptress Moon and made her English-language debut in Wayne Wang's disappointing Chinese Box opposite Jeremy Irons.

In 1997 she was appointed an international representative of the L'Oreal cosmetics company and also served on the jury at the Cannes film festival.

Subsequent big screen appearances included Lady Zhao in The Assassin and in 2004 she starred in Kar Wai Wong's acclaimed sci-fi romance 2046.

In 2005, she played the duplicitous Hatsumomo in Rob Marshall's big screen adaptation of the bestselling novel Memoirs of a Geisha.

Recent work includes the role of Isabella opposite Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx in Michael Mann's big screen version of Miami Vice.