Diana Lee

Diana Lee refuses to ever listen to the word ‘no’. As the daughter of Chinese-immigrant parents, Diana has heard ‘no’ many times, but that has never deterred her ambitious spirit. As a young child, she began to master the flute. By the time she hit the seventh grade, Miss Lee blew away her classmates when she performed a solo act with the Seattle Philharmonic. The all-natural Asian-American had her heart set on majoring in music, but her ambitions took a turn when she became interested in dance. Deciding to pursue dance without having any training as a youngster would be a huge obstacle to overcome, and Diana knew it. A teacher even told her she was too old to achieve a career in modern dance. But like her childhood self, Miss Lee just went ahead and did it. “I took that as a challenge and made dance my passion,” admits Diana. “Dancing is using every part of yourself to make art. If you have certain flaws, as we all do, you don't always hide them. You put them to use. It's like when Playboy takes pictures of all your best angles—in dancing, you can jimmy things around a little, so that to the audience, everything looks perfect.” Miss Lee defied the odds and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah in modern dance. Clearly, she knows how to move her body in ways that are artistic, beautiful and poetic, which didn’t go unnoticed by our talent scouts. “Playboy’s modeling agency in Los Angeles sent me to audition for the film, but I was really surprised when I got the part,” says our Miss May 1988, explaining how she scored an audition for the film License to Kill. Diana, or Diana Lee-Hsu as she is known in Hollywood and in her personal life, played Loti in the James Bond film. Playing an undercover agent from Hong Kong known as Ninja Girl, allowed to use her dancer’s body in ways she had never considered before. “What I especially enjoyed was doing the stunts. My strong background in movement really helped,” says Diana. “I was able to do all of my own stunts, except for the one in which my character jumps off a building. I’d never studied martial arts, either, but now I’m taking Kung-Fu lessons.” She never took ‘no’ for an answer, and now that she’s a Playmate, the beautiful Diana Lee finds herself saying ‘yes’.