Thuy Trang

Thuy Trang (December 14, 1973 – September 3, 2001) was a Vietnamese-American actress.

She was known for her role as Trini Kwan, the original Yellow Ranger on the original cast of the television series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Thùy Trang was born in Saigon, South Vietnam, now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on December 14, 1973, to father Ky Trang and mother Be Trang.

She had two brothers and one sister.

Her father, a South Vietnamese army (ARVN) officer, was tasked with protecting Saigon from communist North Vietnamese army.

Trang's father was a South Vietnamese army officer who fled the country in 1975 after the fall of Saigon, leaving his family behind.

When Trang was six, she and her mother and brothers boarded a cargo ship bound for Hong Kong, a difficult journey during which Trang became very ill.

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, he was forced to leave his family behind and fled the country, immigrating to the United States.

Trang and her family lived in a detention camp as her father petitioned the U.S. government for political asylum for his family.

They fled Saigon when Trang was two years old.

In 1979 when Trang was five, she and her family secretly boarded a cargo ship bound for Hong Kong.

It was a very difficult journey, with people packed tightly due to limited space, lacking in food and water.

The trip lasted about eight or nine months, and at least four people died.

Trang went long periods of time without eating and fell ill, with her mother having to force food down her throat while she was unconscious to keep her alive.

At one point, the other passengers wrongly believed Trang to be dead and wanted to throw her body overboard to make more room for the other refugees, but her mother prevented them from doing so.

They reunited with Trang's father in the United States in 1980 and settled in California.

She enrolled at the University of California, Irvine to study civil engineering, but switched her focus to acting after a talent scout spotted her.

Trang was chosen for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, her first major role, after participating in an audition process that included about 500 actresses.

Like the other cast members, Trang mostly portrayed her character in scenes when she was out of her Power Rangers uniform; the in-costume fight scenes were footage adapted from the long-running Japanese television series Super Sentai, with Trang's voice dubbed over the action.

Trang appeared in 80 episodes in the series, which included the entire first season, and the first twenty episodes of the second.

She performed many of her own stunts, and repeatedly got hurt on the set.

Trang left Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the middle of the second season, along with fellow cast members Austin St. John and Walter Emanuel Jones, due to contractual and payment disputes and was replaced by Karan Ashley as a new Yellow Ranger named Aisha Campbell.

Trang's family and her father were eventually reunited in the United States in 1980, and settled in the city of Fountain Valley, California.

Trang did not speak English upon first arriving in the United States and had to learn it.

Trang began studying Shaolin kung fu, and eventually received a black belt.

Trang said of studying kung fu:

"It's really good because it builds a lot of character and it makes me stronger as a person, especially going through all the stuff I went through, coming over here to America. It just teaches me a lot about who I am and what I am, and about respect, discipline, patience, and perseverance, and endurance."

Trang's father died in 1992 when she was 18.

She graduated from Banning High School in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles, and enrolled at the University of California, Irvine to study civil engineering, planning to follow her father and siblings into the field.

Trang's hobbies included playing tennis, jogging, and reading romance novels.

She also had a dog named Nia.

Trang switched her focus to acting after a chance run in with a talent scout while hanging out with friends.

This led to an introductory acting class at UCI in 1992 where she was spotted for a commercial for the Church of Scientology, even though she herself was a Buddhist.

Trang, the first person in her family to study acting, said she intended to later finish her education despite undertaking an acting career.

Trang earned her first major role in 1993, as Trini Kwan, the Yellow Ranger in the original cast of the TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Her agent arranged for her to participate in an audition process that included about 500 actresses of various races.

Casting director Katy Wallin said the day of Trang's screen test, "Thuy was so nervous that she almost couldn't complete her final callback."

She had a brief appearance in the film Spy Hard (1996), and played one of the lead villains in the film The Crow: City of Angels (1996).

Trang had planned to appear in several films along with St. John and Jones, but none were ultimately made.

Trang died in a car crash at the age of 27.