Michelle Yeoh: rare footage of Oscar-winner at 1984 Australian beauty pageant unearthed

Yeoh also made first on-screen appearance while in Australia in 1980s – in a Guy Laroche watch advertisement alongside Jackie Chan

Michelle Yeoh on Sunday became the first Asian woman to win best actress at the Academy Awards – but an Australian broadcaster has since unearthed archival footage of the actor at a beauty pageant at a Melbourne community festival in 1984.

Yeoh, who was born in Malaysia, was studying at London’s Royal Academy of Dance in the early 1980s when a spinal injury forced her to return home.