The peaceful and happy twilight years of Meritorious Artist Le Van

The film "When Will October Come?" by director Dang Nhat Minh, released in 1984, has become a classic masterpiece of Vietnamese revolutionary cinema. The film won the Golden Lotus Award for "Best Film" at the 7th Vietnam Film Festival in 1985. Notably, "When Will October Come?" was honored by CNN as one of the 18 greatest Asian films of all time.

Movie poster for "When Will October Come?".

Le Van plays the role of Duyen.

Meritorious Artist Lê Vân plays the character Duyên, a wife who visits her husband at the southwestern border but learns that he has been killed in action. Not wanting to cause her family distress, she decides to keep the news a secret and asks Khang, a village teacher, to impersonate her husband and write a letter to inquire about her family. Duyên must silently endure the pain of losing her husband while also facing the gossip and rumors of her relationship with Khang from the villagers.

The role of Duyen brought Le Van many film awards both domestically and internationally. But most importantly, the image of that wartime widow, full of self-sacrifice, has been etched in the hearts of Vietnamese fans for decades after the film was released.

A short but successful career.

Meritorious Artist Lê Vân was born in 1958 in Hanoi into a family with a tradition in the arts. Her father was People's Artist Trần Tiến, her mother was Meritorious Artist Lê Mai, her maternal uncle was Meritorious Artist Lê Chức, and her two younger sisters were actresses Lê Khanh and Lê Vi.

The actress's beauty from back then.

The three sisters are Le Khanh, Le Van, and Le Vi.

From a young age, the three sisters, Le Van, Le Khanh, and Le Vi, showed artistic talent, but the eldest, Le Van, had the most brilliant career. Initially, Le Van started as a dancer but unexpectedly found her way into film.

She has had an admirable acting career with many diverse roles: from the simple, hardworking Sister Dậu in the 1981 film of the same name, to the scheming Empress Tuyên Phi Đặng Thị Huệ in..."Long Tri Festival Night"(1989).

Le Van plays the role of Mrs. Dau, a hardworking and self-sacrificing woman.

Le Van played the role of Consort Dang Thi Hue in "Long Tri Night Festival" (1989).

However, the image of the young wife who lost her husband in"When will October come?"This was truly her defining role. With her exceptional acting talent, Le Van created Duyen – the embodiment of typical Vietnamese women's qualities: kind, loyal, and self-sacrificing. This role brought her the award."Best Actress"at the Vietnam Film Festival in 1985.

Le Van's melancholic beauty in the role of Duyen.

The sudden "disappearance" from acting and the controversial autobiography.

In 1995, at the peak of her career, Le Van unexpectedly withdrew from acting and went into seclusion. After single-handedly ending her own career, she remained silent for a long time, with almost no contact with the press.

Surprisingly, 10 years later, Le Van released her autobiography."Le Van: Love and Life"In the book, she shares very honestly about her miserable childhood and family life, the conflicts between her parents, and then her turbulent love life with three marriages.

Le Van's candid revelations not only sparked controversy in the press but also shocked her family and those she mentioned in her autobiography. When asked about her purpose in writing the book, she said she didn't intend to "expose her private life," but rather saw it as an opportunity to share, express herself, and confess. Despite the uproar caused by the autobiography, Le Van affirmed that it brought her more peace of mind and a deeper understanding of her family.

"Hanoi beauties" - beautiful but complicated.

The detail that readers pay the most attention to in Le Van's autobiography is her tumultuous married life with three relationships. Le Van's first marriage lasted only 14 days. At that time, the government did not provide housing for single people, so in a moment of "feeling down," she decided to register her marriage with a man who had been pursuing her for a long time so that he could apply for a house. But Le Van soon realized she had no feelings for her fiancé, and she was the one who initiated the divorce.

For the second time, she married a Vietnamese-French man who had been married before and had three children from his previous marriage. However, due to fading feelings and the lack of children together, Le Van ended her second relationship after 10 years of living together.

It wasn't until her third husband – a Dutchman named Abraham – that Le Van found complete happiness. They had two children together and enjoyed a peaceful life abroad.

The children of actresses Le Van, Le Khanh, and Le Vi.

A peaceful and happy old age.

Since the controversy surrounding her 2006 autobiography, Le Van has appeared less and less in public.

Recently, actress Le Vi shared her thoughts on her sister's transformation since leaving the spotlight: "Suddenly, she looks extraordinarily young again. She's cheerful, affectionate, innocent, and free-spirited, as if making up for her short childhood. She dares to open wide the doors of her soul that she used to keep tightly closed (we don't know why), leaving us all stunned and amazed, as if in a dream."

The three sisters are artists and their mother is Meritorious Artist Lê Mai.

A rare recent photo of Le Van.

In a 2019 interview, Meritorious Artist Le Van said she felt content being an "ordinary person," unrecognizable to others. She currently lives a quiet, peaceful life with her family and often engages in charitable activities with friends.

Speaking about the meaning of happiness, Le Van said: "Previously, I didn't believe in the word 'happiness' because I was confined to the extremely narrow scope of a couple. Now, I have realized that the meaning of happiness is much greater than that when you know how to love and how to share."

Le Van does charity work with her friends.