From beauty queen to Oscar winner: how Michelle Yeoh was cajoled by mum to join 1983 London beauty pageant
- Yeoh, who took part in the Miss World 1983 pageant in London, won a pageant hosted by Melbourne’s Moomba Festival in 1984
- The Moomba victory may have helped Yeoh catch the attention of action movie superstar Jackie Chan, whose parents lived in Australia from the 1960s
As Michelle Yeoh basks in the glory of the best actress Oscar, a decades-old footage of the star taking part in an Australian beauty pageant has offered a glimpse of her stint in the modelling world.
The Malaysian-born performer told British television talk show host Graham Norton earlier this year that she represented her country at the Miss World 1983 pageant in London after her mother nudged her to sign up.
“I did it to shut her up,” Yeoh recalled.
Yeoh, who finished 18th at the London event, later took part in a pageant hosted by Melbourne’s Moomba Festival in 1984. She took home the Miss Moomba International crown and rode a parade float pulled by a big red tractor on the Australian city’s Swanston Street, archival footage unearthed by national broadcaster ABC showed.
Yeoh was also seen waving to the crowd from the top of the float. She said she had to talk for more than 30 minutes about her country as part of the contest, Singapore’s The Straits Times reported at the time, adding the model was “glowing with pride over the achievement”.
