Cherylene Lee

Cherylene Alice Lee (June 13, 1953 – March 18, 2016) was an American actress and writer.

Cherylene Lee
Cherylene Lee in Dennis The Menace in 1962.
Born	(1953-06-13)June 13, 1953 Los Angeles, California
Died	March 18, 2016(2016-03-18) (aged 62) San Francisco, California

Life

Lee was born and raised in Los Angeles, and was a fourth-generation Chinese-American.^[1] She had two sisters, Priscilla "Puggy" and Virginia.^[2] She began a career as a child actress and dancer at age three, and performed in a song and dance team with her sister Virginia in Las Vegas for three summers.^[2] She graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Paleontology and from UCLA with an MS in Geology.^[2] She subsequently managed an alternative wastewater treatment plant as a Disney Imagineer.^[3] In 1977, she returned to the stage, performing in A Chorus Line.^[4][1] In 1983, she began writing plays, poetry, and fiction.^[1] Her plays include The Legacy Codes about the Wen Ho Lee affair and Carry the Tiger to the Mountain about the death of Vincent Chin.

In 2015, Lee self-published an autobiography, "Just Like Really": An Uncommon Chinese American Memoir.^[2] On March 18, 2016, Lee died in her sleep with her two sisters at her side, after a long battle with breast cancer.^[5]