Thuy Trang

From Saigon, Vietnam • 1973 - 2001

Thuy Trang (December 14, 1973 – September 3, 2001) was a Vietnamese actress based in the United States. She was known for portraying Trini Kwan, the first Yellow Ranger, on the original cast of the television series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. She appeared in 80 episodes from 1993 to 1994, which included the entire first season, and the first twenty episodes of the second. 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. 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. She performed many of her own stunts, and was repeatedly 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. She had a brief appearance in the film Spy Hard and played a lead villain in the film The Crow: City of Angels, both in 1996. Trang had planned to appear in several films along with St. John and Jones, but none were ultimately made, as Trang died in a car crash at the age of 27. (Via Wikipedia)