Gong Li

Chinese film actress. Gong Li (simplified Chinese: 巩俐; traditional Chinese: 鞏俐; pinyin: Gǒng Lì) (born December 31, 1965). Gong Li was born in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, the fifth child in her family. Her father was a professor of economics and her mother, who was 40 when Gong was born, was a teacher.

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Gong.

Despite her high profile, Gong put off working on Hollywood films for years, due to both her lack of confidence in speaking English and her discontent with the types of roles that had been offered to her. Her first major English-language role came in 2005 when she starred as the beautiful but vindictive Hatsumomo in <i>Memoirs of a Geisha</i>. Her performance met generally rave reviews. Her other English-language roles to date have been in <i>Miami Vice</i> in 2006 and <i>Hannibal Rising</i> in 2007.