The Most Famous
ACTORS from Vietnam
Top 10
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Vietnamese Actors of all time. This list of famous Vietnamese Actors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Vietnamese Actors.
1. Marie-France Pisier (1944 - 2011)
With an HPI of 55.88, Marie-France Pisier is the most famous Vietnamese Actor. Her biography has been translated into 28 different languages on wikipedia.
Marie-France Pisier (10 May 1944 – 24 April 2011) was a French actress, screenwriter, and director. She appeared in numerous films of the French New Wave and twice earned the national César Award for Best Supporting Actress.
2. Jonathan Ke Quan (b. 1971)
With an HPI of 51.21, Jonathan Ke Quan is the 2nd most famous Vietnamese Actor. His biography has been translated into 37 different languages.
Ke Huy Quan (born August 20, 1971), also known as Jonathan Ke Quan (), is an American actor. As a child actor, Quan rose to fame playing Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Data in The Goonies (1985). Following a few roles in the 1990s, he took a 19-year acting hiatus, during which he worked as a stunt choreographer and assistant director. Quan returned to acting with the family adventure Finding ʻOhana (2021), followed by the critically acclaimed Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), a performance that won him various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Quan and Haing S. Ngor are the only two actors of Asian descent to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Quan is the first Vietnam-born actor to win an Academy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023. He has since starred in the second season of the Disney+ series Loki in 2023.
3. Chantal Goya (b. 1942)
With an HPI of 51.05, Chantal Goya is the 3rd most famous Vietnamese Actor. Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Chantal de Guerre (French pronunciation: [ʃɑ̃tal də ɡɛʁ]; born 10 June 1942), known as Chantal Goya ([ɡɔja]), is a French singer and actress. Goya started her career as a yé-yé girl, singing a catchy mid-1960s hybrid of girl-group pop and French chanson. She also enjoyed a career as a French New Wave actress; she had a starring role as Madeleine in the 1966 Jean-Luc Godard film Masculin, féminin and in Jean-Daniel Pollet's L'amour c'est gai, l'amour c'est triste (Love is joy, love is sad). Since 1975, she has become mostly known as a singer for children. Together with her husband, songwriter and composer Jean-Jacques Debout, and with a talented team of designers and costume people, she does shows for and with children. The main themes are dreams and traveling. Her usual character is Marie-Rose, a mix between a maid and an older sister (reminiscent of Julie Andrews in both The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins).
4. Dany Carrel (b. 1932)
With an HPI of 45.80, Dany Carrel is the 4th most famous Vietnamese Actor. Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Yvonne Suzanne Chazelles du Chaxel, better known as Dany Carrel, (born 20 September 1932) is a French actress. She was born in Tourane, today Đà Nẵng (Vietnam - then French Indochina) to French father Marie Yves Aimé du Chaxel, a local Customs general manager, and his Vietnamese mistress, Kam. She shot about 50 films and TV films from the 1950s - when she quickly became famous - to the 1990s, and also played in theatre. She gradually retired starting from the eighties due to two bouts of cancer. In 2021, she was hospitalized for three weeks after contracting COVID-19.
5. Linh Dan Pham (b. 1974)
With an HPI of 42.22, Linh Dan Pham is the 5th most famous Vietnamese Actor. Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Linh Dan Pham (born Phạm Linh Đan, June 20, 1974) is a Vietnamese-born French actress.
6. Thuy Trang (1973 - 2001)
With an HPI of 41.06, Thuy Trang is the 6th most famous Vietnamese Actor. Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.
Thuy Trang (December 14, 1973 – September 3, 2001) was a Vietnamese-born actress based in the United States. 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. 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. 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. 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.
7. Dustin Nguyen (b. 1962)
With an HPI of 40.43, Dustin Nguyen is the 7th most famous Vietnamese Actor. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.
Dustin Nguyen (born Nguyễn Xuân Trí; September 17, 1962) is a Vietnamese-American actor and martial artist. He is best known for his roles as Harry Truman Ioki on 21 Jump Street and as Johnny Loh on VIP. Currently, he stars as Zing in the Cinemax/Max martial arts crime drama series Warrior. In film, he is known for starring in Little Fish, The Doom Generation and The Rebel.
8. Ngô Thanh Vân (b. 1979)
With an HPI of 40.27, Ngô Thanh Vân is the 8th most famous Vietnamese Actor. Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.
Ngô Thanh Vân (born 26 February 1979), also known as Veronica Ngô or by her initials NTV, is a Vietnamese actress and singer.
9. Hiep Thi Le (1971 - 2017)
With an HPI of 33.47, Hiep Thi Le is the 9th most famous Vietnamese Actor. Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Hiep Thi Le (Vietnamese: Lê Thị Hiệp; February 18, 1971 – December 19, 2017) was an American actress. She is known for her portrayal of Le Ly in Oliver Stone's war drama film Heaven & Earth (1993).
10. Lana Condor (b. 1997)
With an HPI of 32.05, Lana Condor is the 10th most famous Vietnamese Actor. Her biography has been translated into 31 different languages.
Lana Therese Condor (born Trần Đồng Lan; May 11, 1997) is an American actress and YouTuber. She made her acting debut starring as Jubilee in the superhero film X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), and gained international recognition for portraying Lara Jean Covey in the romantic comedy To All the Boys film series (2018–2021). She has also portrayed Saya Kuroki in the television series Deadly Class (2019) and Koyomi in the film Alita: Battle Angel (2019). More recently, Condor voiced the titular character in the animated teen comedy film Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023).
People
Pantheon has 10 people classified as Vietnamese actors born between 1932 and 1997. Of these 10, 7 (70.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Vietnamese actors include Jonathan Ke Quan, Chantal Goya, and Dany Carrel. The most famous deceased Vietnamese actors include Marie-France Pisier, Thuy Trang, and Hiep Thi Le. As of April 2024, 2 new Vietnamese actors have been added to Pantheon including Dany Carrel, and Hiep Thi Le.
Living Vietnamese Actors
Go to all Rankings
Jonathan Ke Quan
1971 - Present
HPI: 51.21
Chantal Goya
1942 - Present
HPI: 51.05
Dany Carrel
1932 - Present
HPI: 45.80
Linh Dan Pham
1974 - Present
HPI: 42.22
Dustin Nguyen
1962 - Present
HPI: 40.43
Ngô Thanh Vân
1979 - Present
HPI: 40.27
Lana Condor
1997 - Present
HPI: 32.05
Deceased Vietnamese Actors
Go to all RankingsMarie-France Pisier
1944 - 2011
HPI: 55.88
Thuy Trang
1973 - 2001
HPI: 41.06
Hiep Thi Le
1971 - 2017
HPI: 33.47
Newly Added Vietnamese Actors (2024)
Go to all RankingsOverlapping Lives
Which Actors were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 3 most globally memorable Actors since 1700.
