My photo on a magazine cover got me out of jail

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Aged 17 Kieu Chinh was separated from her family, Vietnam had been divided into Communist-run North and a pro-US regime in the South. Kieu found herself alone in Saigon waiting for her father and brother to join her but they never came. Her fortunes changed when two years later she was stopped in the street by a Hollywood producer, the encounter would kick off a successful career in film, as an actor and film producer, and her own TV chat show. Then in 1975 the Vietnam War came to Saigon. Kieu fled just as South Vietnam was falling to the Communists. She found herself in Singapore with no valid passport and was promptly put in jail. In a queue for the toilets she spotted a guard reading a magazine featuring her on the front cover and convinced him to allow her a phone call, finally she found her way out of the country en route to Canada as a refugee. From here, she had to build her life back up, from work on a chicken farm, all the way back to the screen and a role on the TV hit M*A*S*H and the film The Joy Luck Club. In 1995, she made her first trip back to Vietnam to finally reunite with her brother and find out what had happened to her family. Kieu's memoir is called 'An Artist in Exile'. Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Sarah Kendal Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707 (Photo: Kieu Chinh, at the Asian World Film Festival, November 2024. Credit: Greg Doherty / Getty Images)