Wai Ching Ho, Who Played Marvel’s Madame Gao In Daredevil, Has Died At 82

Actress Wai Ching Ho, best known to Marvel fans for playing supervillain Madame Gao in “Daredevil,” “Iron Fist,” and “The Defenders,” has died at 82. Actor Perry Yung posted a tribute to her on Instagram on Sunday, July 12, noting that she “passed away peacefully from a stroke two days ago.” Her “Daredevil” co-star Peter Shinkoda also paid tribute to her on Instagram, writing, “I won’t ever forget you. I learned every minute from you when we were together on and off set.”

Wai was born in Japanese-occupied Hong Jong in 1943 and made her American TV acting debut on the soap opera “One Life to Live” in 1987. In “Daredevil” and the wider “Defenders”-verse, Madame Gao was one of the five leaders of the Hand, an ancient and powerful organization with designs on immortality. Though she might look less threatening than other New York crime bosses like Wilson Fisk, Madame Gao proves to be perhaps the most dangerous of them all. When Daredevil makes the mistake of approaching her directly in the Season 1 finale, Gao lays him out with a single blow. She is by far one of the most memorable characters from Netflix’s Marvel shows.

Beyond the Marvel universe, Wai played a similarly domineering role in Pixar’s “Turning Red,” as the voice of family matriarch Grandma Wu. But she showed a softer side in Lorene Scafaria’s 2019 drama “Hustlers,” where she played the grandmother of Constance Wu’s protagonist character, Destiny.

News of Wai’s death was met with an outpouring of social media tributes from her friends and colleagues in the industry.