Nuyen was born in Marseille, the daughter of an ethnic Romani
mother of French nationality and a father from French Indochina. Her father is widely reported to be Vietnamese (Kinh); however, Nuyen identifies him and herself as Chinese (Hoa).
After leaving school at the age of 11, she began studying art and became an artist's model. She was later signed to Candy Jones' agency, and moved to New York City at age 16. In 1955, Nuyen was discovered while modeling at the Beaux Arts School by Life photographer Philippe Halsman. She was featured on the cover of 6 October 1958 issue of Life.
Career
Nuyen in 1958
France Nuyen became a motion picture actress in 1958. In her first role, she appeared as Liat, daughter of Bloody Mary (played by Juanita Hall), in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific.
France Nuyen worked several times with actor William Shatner. At age 19, she was cast in Shatner's 1958 Broadway play The World of Suzie Wong. After a dubious initial opening, the play ran for more than 500 performances and was quite financially successful. Both Nuyen and Shatner later collected notable accolades for their work on the show at the 1959 Theatre World Awards.
Nuyen worked again with Shatner across three US television projects, starting with "Elaan of Troyius", a 1968 third season episode of the original Star Trek in which Nuyen was the title character. She would later appear with Shatner in the CBS 1973 made-for-TV movie The Horror at 37,000 Feet, and afterward in a 1974 episode of the Kung Fu series entitled "A Small Beheading".
Nuyen had many on-and-off relationships, most notably an affair with Marlon Brando in 1960. From 1963 to 1966, Nuyen was married to Thomas Gaspar Morell, a psychiatrist from New York, by whom she has a daughter who resides in Canada and works as a film make-up artist. She met her second husband, Robert Culp, while appearing in four episodes of his television series I Spy. They married in 1967, but divorced three years later.
In 1986, Nuyen earned a master's degree in clinical psychology and began a second career as a counselor for abused women and children and women in prison. She received a Woman of the Year award in 1989 for her psychology work. In the Life cover story on Nuyen, she is quoted as saying a proverb she also repeated in character as a spy in the I Spy episode "Magic Mirror": "I am Chinese. I am a stone. I go where I am kicked."
