Anna May Wong

At 12 she broke into films as an extra and soon went on to play a number of featured parts. She first attracted significant attention for her portrayal of a slave girl in Douglas Fairbanks's The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Oriental mysteries came into fashion in the late '20s, helping to elevate her to international stardom. In 1929 she went to Europe; besides starring in British and German films she also lectured widely. Meanwhile, she also costarred with Laurence Olivier in the stage production Circle of Chalk. Her films in the late '30s and early '40s were mostly cheap melodramas in which she played mysterious wicked women. In 1942 she retired from the screen, later appearing in three additional films. She died of a heart attack at 54.