Irene Tsu Wiki, Bio, Career, Net Worth & Relationships

American-Chinese Actress Irene Tsu, the ex-girlfriend of Frank Sinatra, made her debut in the film adaptation of Flower Drum Song in 1961. She is known for her role of Wiki Wiki Girl in the Wiki wiki dollar advertising campaign for Chevron Corporation.

In this capsule, we discuss the details about her early life, career, relationships, net worth, and her overall life. Let us take a deep dive down her life.

Irene Tsu Early Life

Irene Tsu was born in Shanghai, China to a banker father and a painter mother on November 4, 1943. She attended parochial school after the family left for Hong Kong. At the age of 12, her family immigrated to New York City.

Later, she attended Mamaroneck Elementary School and studied ballet and jazz. Accordingly, in the late 1950s, Irene auditioned for a dancing job in Broadway’s Flower Drum Song directed by Henry Koster. He also gave her her first speaking role as a teenage prostitute in his film Take Her, She’s Mine starring James Stewart which booster her acting career.

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Irene Tsu’s Career

Irene Tsu’s career spans four decades in most of the popular TV series 50 titles and 32 feature films. She was able to cross over to play not only Chinese parts but roles originally written for other ethnicities. After Tsu entered and won first place in the beauty pageant, Miss Chinatown USA, she started acting.

Furthermore, she played the role of defendant Juli Eng in The Case of the Floating Stones. She made guest appearances on Perry Mason aired on CBS. Additionally, she appeared on most of the popular ’60s-70s TV shows such as I Spy, The Man From U.N.C.L.E, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Family Affair, and many more.

Then, from 1978 to 1989, she transitioned into chief operating and head designing for her own leisure apparel company The IT Company/Irene Tsu Designs. Since then, Tsu is working as a realtor for Coldwell Banker in Beverly Hills, California.

Equally important, the single mother of her daughter Yasmine Tsu was also a yoga practitioner for more than 25 years. Tsu studied directly with yoga master Bikram Choudhury and taught at Bikram Yoga College in Encinitas, California. Also, she teaches weekly yoga classes at Bikram HQ in Los Angeles.

Irene Tsu’s Relationship and Affairs

Tsu is happily married to Hungarian film and TV director, Ivan Nagy. Irene and Ivan have been married for a total of 8 years. They dated for a year after getting together and married in 1971. They are raising an adopted daughter, allegedly.

Before she became a married woman, she dated the ’80s popular singer Frank Sinatra. They first met at a Miami Hotel through a mutual friend while Tsu was filming 1967‘s Tony Rome.

At the time, Frank had recently ended his relationship with his third wife Mia Farrow. He was 52 while Tsu was 24. Despite their age gap, the couple’s relationship worked because of the similarities of their humor.

“I was a meditating, vegetarian hippie, and he was a meat-eating, boozing, ultra-famous person. But I made him laugh a lot. I brought him an elaborate train set from Japan, and we spent hours putting it together, rolling on the floor, laughing and eating popcorn.”

Nonetheless, humor alone can’t tie a relationship together. They both knew marriage wasn’t an option for them at the time. They ended their relationship after dating for 2 years.

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Irene Tsu’s Net Worth

Famous Chinese-American actress has successfully gathered an astounding net worth of $500,000. Being an actress as well as a realtor and a yoga practitioner, she sure has gathered a hefty amount.

Her acting career was a helping hand in making her net worth what it is. “The Man From UNCLE” grossed $45.4 million in North America and $64.4 million in South America. The cast of Family Affair earned $100,000 whereas the cast of “Take Her, She’s Mine” earned $300,000.

Similarly, the cast of “The Sand Pebbles” earned a total of $250,000.