‘QUEEN OF MARTIAL ARTS’

Cheng Pei-pei, ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ Star, Dead at 78

In announcing her death, her family said that she had been battling a rare degenerative disease for years.

Cheng Pei-pei, the trailblazing actor dubbed the Queen of Martial Arts, has died. She was 78. A Chinese movie star, who found international acclaim for her role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Pei-pei passed away Thursday in the San Francisco Bay area, her representatives from Echelon Talent Management told People. “She was not only the ‘Queen of Martial Arts’ and the first Asian action heroine, but she was also a true hero for what she did to help others till her very last days,” the reps said in a statement. Pei-pei’s family separately wrote in a Facebook post that she “passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones.” The post also said Pei-pei was diagnosed in 2019 with “a neurodegenerative, atypical parkinsonism syndrome – unofficially, corticobasal degeneration (CBD),” describing the condition as a “rare disease with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s.” Pei-pei chose not to publicly reveal her condition, the post read, choosing instead to deal with the matter privately and “spend her remaining time with her children and grandchildren.”