Budding actress Gloria Chin was in the Paramount Pictures commissary when she was spotted by the wife of Hollywood screenwriter and producer Sidney Buchman. Gloria was quickly cast in the 1947 film noir Singapore alongside Ava Gardner and Fred MacMurray. Gloria was also given a new name — the exotic-sounding mononym “Maylia.”
Favorable reviews led to a string of films for Maylia, including To the Ends of the Earth, Boston Blackie’s Chinese Venture, Chinatown at Midnight, Call Me Mister and Return to Paradise. She became just one of a handful of Asian-American actresses to find success in the often racially- biased Hollywood. Maylia’s name was regularly mentioned in the same breath as Anna May Wong.
In 1947, Maylia met her future husband, character actor Benson Fong. The couple, seeking a steady income, opened a Chinese restaurant called Ah Fong’s in Hollywood. The restaurant was very successful, allowing the couple to branch out with Ah Fong locations in Anaheim, Beverly Hills, Encino and Westwood. The restaurants were popular with tourists and celebrities alike. Johnny Carson often gave away dinner certificates for Ah Fong’s to audience members. It even appeared in a Season Eight episode of the sitcom Bewitched.
After the release of Return to Paradise, Maylia left her show business career to focus on her family and help her husband run their restaurants. When Benson Fong passed away in 1987, there was just one Ah Fong’s location remaining. It was operated by a family member.
Maylia passed away in 2016 at the age of 90. She was survived by her five children and nine grandchildren.