Profile of Thuy Trang on Famous Like Me

Thuy Trang (December 14, 1973 - September 3, 2001), was a Vietnamese-American actress, and was born in Saigon, South Vietnam. Thuy was of Vietnamese, Chinese, and French descent. She is not to be confused with Vietnamese singer Trish Thuy Trang, who is still alive.

Biography

Her 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 during a fierce battle overcame his battalion, due to their low ammunition and air support. 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 1979, her mother, two brothers and sister, secretly boarded a cargo ship with hundreds of other persecuted Southern Vietnamese and arrived in Hong Kong. Thuy's father was contacted and he then petitioned the United States government for political asylum for his family.

In 1980, they were reunited in Little Saigon, California, and she began to learn Kung Fu at the age of nine.

She graduated from Banning High School and earned a scholarship to study Civil Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, while she also moonlighted as an actress.

She played Trini Kwan, the yellow ranger, on the original cast of the TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Thuy was on the show for 3 seasons. She left the show along with Austin St. John and Walter Emmanuel Jones because of pay reasons and was replaced by Yellow Ranger #2, Karan Ashley. She also appeared in the movies: The Crow: City of Angels, Spy Hard, and was set to appear in Cyberstrike, which never entered production.

Thuy Trang died in a car accident on September 3, 2001, in San Francisco. She was a passenger on Interstate Highway 5 between San Francisco and Los Angeles when the vehicle she was riding in lost control. Also injured in the accident was fellow Vietnamese actor Dustin Nguyen's wife, Angela Rockwood-Nguyen (a former actress/model), who was a passenger in the vehicle. Rockwood-Nguyen survived despite not wearing a seat belt. As a result, however, she is now quadriplegic. Thuy Trang died upon impact. Her co-actors David Yost and Amy Jo Johnson from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers attended the funeral, held on September 10th at the Peek Family Funeral Home in Westminster, California. Saban dedicated a Power Rangers Time Force episode in her memory.

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