Marrie Lee
Doris Young Siew Keen, born on November 25, 1959 in Singapore, is a filmmaker, writer and former actress who is best known by her stage name Marrie Lee. She became famous for her role as Cleopatra Wong, a female Interpol agent, in They Call Her Cleopatra Wong (1978).
She grew up in Singapore with her father John Young, a cinema owner and distributor, and her mother Mary Young. She had an older brother, Jimmy, and an older sister, Betty. Because her father worked with cinema, she met many Hong Kong film stars as a child. Her father died when she was six and her mother died when she was sixteen.
After finishing St Anthony’s Convent Secondary School, she worked as a restaurant usher in 1976 and was discovered by a Hong Kong scouting team. Her first acting role was a small detective in Showdown at the Equator.
In 1977 she answered a newspaper ad seeking a heroine who could ride a motorcycle and won the role of Cleopatra Wong. At 18, she became famous for this film, which was shot in Singapore and the Philippines and directed by Bobby A. Suarez. Her screen name Marrie Lee was created to capitalize on the fame of Bruce Lee.
She reprised the role in Dynamite Johnson (1979) and again in Devil’s Angels, where she led an all-female crime-fighting team. She did many stunts, including jumping through a real glass window and hanging from a helicopter, and she sustained injuries such as a fractured left wrist.
In the early 1980s, planned projects with other actors did not materialize, including a lead role in Charlie Chan’s Number One Daughter due to Hollywood labor strikes. Marrie Lee retired from acting in 1981 and spent two years running a dance troupe named The Devil’s Angels, while starting a family.
From 1989 she and her sister Betty ran a healthcare company, Tisco Pte Ltd. At Screen Singapore in 2005, she met Bobby Suarez again, who talked about a Cleopatra Wong reboot. Suarez died in 2010, and Marrie Lee inherited the franchise rights and the website.
In 2012 she started Reel Frenz Productions, working as a director, producer and writer, and has helped produce at least 12 short films. In 2013 she spoke in The Search for Weng Weng. With her partner Jacqueline, she expanded Tisco to Hong Kong in 2014 and started Singapore Cinema Pte Ltd in 2015 to oversee her film projects. Her first feature as a director, Certified Dead, was released in 2016.
She has been married and divorced three times. Sandi Tan, director of Shirkers, is her ex-stepdaughter.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:57 (CET).