'Big Hair Lady' and ex-actress Catherine Tan, whose dad died in 2004 Nicoll Highway collapse, dead at 50
Former actress Catherine Tan has reportedly died at age 50 on March 28.
Stomper Sarah alerted Stomp to online tributes to Tan posted by fans.
One 2024 video compiled clips of her appearances in numerous local TV shows, including Under One Roof, Mr Kiasu, Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd and Police And Thief.
Tan became an actress after studying drama and psychology at Monash University in Australia.
︎The Stomper said she used to live in the same Pasir Ris block as Tan.
"Her backstory was terrible," said the Stomper. "Her father was one of the victims of the Nicoll Highway collapse. She had roles in TV, and everything went downhill after the incident."
In 2004, the actress' father, Land Transport Authority inspector Tan Lock Yong, was one of four people who lost their lives in the Nicoll Highway collapse.
Two weeks after the tragedy, Tan's fiance called off their engagement. Shortly after that, her maternal grandmother died.
Tan's mother, who could not deal with the double loss, slipped into depression.
A year later, the actress drew flak for appearing on the cover of now-defunct men's magazine Maxim, where she posed in skimpy black lacy underwear. She was also in FHM, another men's magazine that no longer exists.
Some accused Tan of taking advantage of her father's death to push herself into the limelight. It got so bad that she even received feedback through her mother about the nasty things people were saying behind her back.
"'I probably heard this a zillion times. The fact is my dad died. I didn't pray for my father to die so that my face can be splashed in the papers," she told The New Paper then
Nine years later, Tan told TNP that from 2011 to 2013, she was based in Taiwan, where she volunteered at homeless shelters and eldercare centers and acted in projects by students from Taiwan University. There, she met her Taiwanese husband, with whom she was living in Singapore in 2014.
In more recent years, she became better known as the "Big Hair Lady" for frequently being spotted in public in her oversized wig.
