In Photos: Michelle Yeoh’s Iconic Hollywood Career

Brosnan himself spoke highly of Yeoh after starring alongside her and said he considered her the "female James Bond." Yeoh requested that she be allowed to do her own stunts for Tomorrow Never Dies but the film's director Roger Spottiswoode refused. She was, however, allowed to perform her own fight choreography.

Yeoh modeled in these incredible photos for National Geographic, which got some attention online when they were shown during a recent interview with Yeoh on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.Yeoh is indeed hanging in a harness from a helicopter for these shots.

The photographer, Joe McNally, penned a blog post after the photos gained traction again, and he wrote "She recalls being very cold. I recall her being absolutely magnificent hanging off those wires, just across from me, as I hung from the other skid."

Yeoh with the director Ang Lee on the left and her co-star Cheng Pei-Pei on the right. This epic period drama or "wuxia" as it's known in Chinese fiction has some of the most incredible cinematography, performances, martial arts fights, and production design of any film. It premiered to widespread acclaim in 2000 and

Yeoh added another feather to her festival jury cap when she was a member of the jury for the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. The Palme D'or was awarded to The Pianist directed by Roman Polanski.

Yeoh returned to Malaysia, where she spent most of her childhood, for this concert benefit called Force of Nature to assist victims of a tsunami in her home country.

Yeoh was a cast member of The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in 2008, which also starred Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello and John Hannah.

Yeoh has worked a ton as an actress but also has some producer credits to her name, including the martial arts film The Touch and the documentary Pad Yatra: The Green Odyssey. The doc followed seven hundred hikers who hiked across the Himalayas to raise awareness about the impact of climate change in the region.

Yeoh played a former assassin reluctantly drawn back to her old ways as she's attacked by her former gang in Reign of Assasins. It premiered to acclaim in an out-of-competition screening at the Venice Film Festival and later had theatrical runs in the U.S. and U.K..

Yeoh collaborated with the legendary director of The Fifth Element, Luc Besson, for this autobiographical drama film The Lady. The performances of Yeoh and her co-star David Thewlis were highly praised, but the film as a whole received a mixed reception upon its 2011 premiere.

Clearly, Yeoh is always game to wield a prop sword and get up on wires to kick butt. She is here shooting for a live TV show in Beijing alongside Cecilia Cheung.

Yeoh had a Saturn Award-nominated recurring role as Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Discovery, one of her few forays into TV. A spinoff series starring her character is reportedly still in development.

Even in a stellar ensemble cast that was assembled for the romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, Yeoh shined as the mother of Nick, Eleanor Sung-Young, peeling back layers of an initially-cold exterior to reveal a vulnerable and moving performance by the end.

Okay, she didn't play that Santa, she played an owner of a Christmas shop in London who calls herself Santa. This was for the Christmas romantic comedy Last Christmas directed by legendary comedy filmmaker Paul Feig.

Yeoh had a small role in the MCU film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in 2021 and had also been in a Marvel film prior to this when she played Aleta Ogord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.