Behind the Helmets | Mighty Morphin | Rangers

Thuy Trang
born December 14, 1973 in Saigon, South Vietnam
died September 3, 2001 in San Francisco, California
Heritage: Vietnamese-American

Characters Portrayed

Trini Kwan (2)/Yellow Morphin Ranger

MMPR 1-2

Chronology
Thuy rose from a victim of the Vietnam War to a rising Hollywood star whose path was tragically cut short.

1970's

Thuy endured a very rigid lifestyle growing up in the midst of Communist forces during the Fall of Saigon portion of the Vietnam War. Her father, a soldier in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, knew that he had to return home and relocate his family, but his efforts were hindered by the North Vietnamese Army. The United States granted him political asylum, with him vowing to ultimately bring his family to the US.

1975

The family (mother, sister and two brothers) was forced to flee Saigon.

1979

Though Thuy was extremely ill, she an her family secretly boarded a cargo ship with hundreds of persecuted South Vietnamese en route to Hong Kong where they would live in a detention camp for the next year.

1980

Mr. Trang had gotten political asylum for his family, and was finally reunited with them during this year in Little Saigon, California.

1981

Thuy began to learn martial arts in the form of Kung-Fu.

1982

Mr. Trang passed away due to cancer.

1990

Thuy graduated from Banning High School with a scholarship for civil engineering at the University of California.

1992-1994

A talent scout discovered Thuy and introduced her to a number of oppertunities that would alter her life forever. Beginning with commericals and advertisements, Thuy would eventually get the lead role of Trini Kwan in the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. She actually preceeded the original actress selected for the role, Audri Dubois (who left for personal reasons). Little did Thuy know that the role would launch her into a world-wide phenomenon.

Thuy's character, like with other characters from the season, were modeled around Thuy's own personality which consisted of discipline and honor. The season one episode "Plague of the Mantis" was a prime example of her character's nature.

In the middle of the second season, Thuy left the show with Austin St. John and Walter Jones over salary issues. They apparently left so abruptly that they didn't stay for post-production of several episodes, resulting in voice actors imitating Thuy while in morphed combat. This became painfully obvious in the last few episodes she was in. The ultimate result was her being replaced by Karan Ashley as the new Yellow Ranger. Thuy, unlike Austin and Walter, would not have anything else to do with the franchise in later years.

1995

Thuy was interviewed in the video documentary "The Encyclopedia of Martial Arts." She was also set to act in "Cyberstrike," but it failed to reach the production stage.

1996

Thuy missed out on the first Power Rangers movie in 1995, but that didn't stop her from making the big screen. She portrayed Kali, a villain lead, in the movie "The Crow: City of Angels."

She had also played a manicurist in "Spy Hard," in which she was mistakingly credited as the masseuse in the same scene.

September 3, 2001

Thuy was involved in a horrific car crash at the age of 27, in which she suffered fatal wounds. She and former actress/model Angela Rockwood-Nguyen, to whom Trang was to be a bridesmaid to later that year, were passengers in a car traveling on Interstate 5 between San Francisco and Los Angeles (they were returning from visiting Angela's planned maid of honor) when the driver (another of Angela's bridesmaids) of the vehicle she was riding in lost control. The car swerved violently across the road before hitting the roadside rock face and flipping several times before hitting the safety rail and plunging over the bank.

Rockwood-Nguyen, who has claimed both that she was[1] and wasn't[2] wearing a seatbelt in different interviews, survived despite being thrown out of the vehicle through a window before its final impact; as a result, however, she is now quadriplegic. Trang, whom was believed wasn't wearing a seat belt, died from the injuries she sustained. The driver is not believed to have suffered any lasting injuries but it hasn't been confirmed whether she was wearing a seatbelt or not.

Her Power Rangers co-stars Amy Jo Johnson, Austin St. John, David Yost and Walter Jones attended the funeral (at which Johnson spoke), a traditional Buddhist ceremony, held on September 10th at the Peek Family Funeral Home in Westminster, California.

The Power Rangers Time Force episode "Circuit Unsure" was dedicated to her Thuy's memory.

2004

The last mentioning of the Trini Kwan character was in the Power Rangers DinoThunder series in which Tommy (Jason David Frank) reviewed the history of his former teammates to the newest generation of Rangers.

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