Wave Staff and Wire Reports
HOLLYWOOD — Actress Lisa Lu and the rock group Green Day are the latest recipients of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Lu became the oldest recipient of a star on the famed walk May 5 when she was honored at age 98 for a movie career which has included appearances in such films as “The Last Emperor” and “The Joy Luck Club.”
Awkwafina, a castmate of Lu’s in “Crazy Rich Asians,” and Janet Yang, president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, were among those joining Lu at the ceremony at 1708 Vine St., near the corner of Hollywood and Vine.
The star is near those honoring James Stewart, whom Lu co-starred with she made her film debut in the 1960 war film, “The Mountain Road,” and Anna May Wong, the first Asian woman to be honored with a star on the Walk of Fame. Wong’s star was among the initial 1,558 stars when the walk was completed in 1961.
Lu noted that she originally declined to have a star on the famed walk at an earlier age.
“I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone walking on my name,” she told the crowd. “Today, it’s 98 years old. I embrace the star as a testament to resilience and perseverance.”
Lu’s family selected May 5 for the ceremony because it is a “Square Root Day,” when both the day of the month and the month are the square root of the last two digits of the year, the “date just rolls off the tongue in a lyrical way” and is easy to remember, Ana Martinez, producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, told City News Service.
The previous oldest star recipient was actor James Hong, who was 93 when he received his star in 2022. Coincidentally, Lu and Hong appeared together on such television shows as the Ronald Reagan-hosted anthology, “General Electric Theater;” the detective drama, “Richard Diamond, Private Detective;” and the comedy “Bachelor Father,” which all aired on CBS.
Born on Jan. 19, 1927, in Beijing, Lu was the adopted daughter of noted Chinese opera (Kunqu) performer Mei Lanfang. Her mother, Li Guifen, was also a Kunqu singer. Lu followed in her parents footsteps and began performing in Kunqu as a teenager.
Lu moved with her family to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War when she was in college. She studied business administration at National Chiao Tung University and financial management at the University of Hawai’i, as well as drama and speech.
Lu and her family moved to Los Angeles in 1956, and she joined the Pasadena Playhouse. She made her professional stage debut in 1958, in a production of “The Teahouse of the August Moon.” She made her television debut in a 1958 episode of the CBS comedy, “The Gale Storm Show.”
Lu won three Golden Horse Awards — Taiwan’s version of an Oscar — in the 1970s. She won for best actress in 1970 for her performance in “The Arch” and in 1972 for her portrayal of Empress Dowager Cixi in “The Empress Dowager.”
Lu won a best supporting actress Golden Horse Award in 1972 for her portrayal of She Saihua, the legendary heroine from ancient China’s Northern Song Dynasty, in “The 14 Amazons.”
Lu also portrayed Cixi in the 1976 Hong Kong-made drama, “The Last Tempest” and in “The Last Emperor,” which won nine Oscars in 1988, including best picture.
Green Day received its star May 1, honored for a career that has included induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and selling more than 75 million records.
“Thank you to all of our fans that bought our records and come to our shows,” frontman Billie Joe Armstrong told the cheering crowd gathered for the event. “We love you guys so much.”
Actor Ryan Reynolds and Rob Cavallo, who produced many of Green Day’s recordings, joined Armstrong and fellow band members Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool at the ceremony at 6212 Hollywood Blvd., adjacent to Amoeba Music.
The ceremony came 12 days after the second of Green Day’s two back-to-back Saturday performances at Coachella and 22 days before the release of the deluxe edition of its most recent studio album, “Saviors,” which includes five new songs and acoustic renditions of “Suzie Chapstick” and “Father to a Son.”
“We’ll never say thank you enough for everybody and everyone who was involved with whatever we’ve done over the years,” Dirnt said. “But this is for all of us, thank you.”
Green Day was formed in 1986 in Berkeley and released its breakout album “Dookie,” in 1994, which sold more than 10 million copies, and achieved double diamond status (20 times platinum) by the recording industry trade group the Recording Industry Association of America.
“Dookie” reached second on the Billboard 200 and included three No. 1 singles on Billboard’s alternative songs chart — “Longview,” “Basket Case” and “When I Come Around.”
The album has been included on all four versions of Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list and first in the 2017 version on its “The 50 Greatest Pop-Punk Albums” list.
“Dookie” was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2024 as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
“Dookie” is widely credited with popularizing and reviving mainstream interest in punk rock. It was named after a child’s slang word for a lump of excrement.
“Dookie” also brought Green Day the first of its four Grammy awards, winning for best alternative music performance.
The trio received three other nominations in 1995 — best new artist, losing to Sheryl Crow, best hard rock performance for “Longview,” and best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal for “Basket Case.”
Green Day won its next Grammy in 2005 for best rock album for “American Idiot.” What band members called a “punk rock opera” also received nominations for album of the year, record of the year, best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal and best short-form music vocal.
“American Idiot” was adapted into a Broadway musical, winning Tonys for best scenic design of a musical and best lighting design of a musical in 2010 and receiving a nomination for best musical, losing to “Memphis.”
Green Day won the Grammy for record of the year in 2006 for “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” an emo hard rock power ballad from “American Idiot,” named after a painting by Gottfried Helnwein that depicts James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley together in a downtown diner, with the title reflecting their deaths.
Green Day’s most recent Grammy came in 2010 for best rock album for “21st Century Breakdown,” a rock opera the band called a rumination of “the era in which we live as we question and try to make sense of the selfish manipulation going on around us.”
Entertainment Weekly has called Green Day, “The most influential band of their generation,” while Rolling Stone declared, “Green Day have inspired more young bands to start than any act this side of Kiss.”
