‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ star Cheng Pei-pei died on Wednesday (July 17) at age 78.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Cheng Pei-pei died on Wednesday (July 17) in the San Francisco Bay area, Variety reports. She was 78.
According to the outlet, the late actress had been suffering from a degenerative brain disease, and her brain has been donated to research.
Per People, Cheng’s family posted a statement on Facebook, confirming that she “passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones on July 17.”
“In 2019, our mom was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative, atypical parkinsonism syndrome – unofficially, corticobasal degeneration (CBD),” they shared. “It is a rare disease with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease, however, current treatments cannot slow the progression. She chose not to make this news public so that she could deal with her condition in private and spend her remaining time with her children and grandchildren.”
Cheng was born in Shanghai, China, and moved to Hong Kong in 1962, where she found work with the Shaw Brothers studio, per Variety.
