- Tao was an American model, actress, yoga master, competitive dancer and award-winning author of French and Indian descent
| Real name: | Tao Porchon-Lynch (born Täo Andrée Porchon) | | Born: | 13 August 1918 Comment | | When did Tao Porchon-Lynch die? / Died | 21 February 2020 | | How many years did Tao Porchon-Lynch live? / Lived | 101 years | | Where was Tao Porchon-Lynch born? | Pondicherry, India | | Where did Tao Porchon-Lynch die? / Deathplace | White Plains, New York, U.S.A. | | Nicknames: | Real-Life Forrest Gump | | Zodiac sign: | Leo |
Tao Porchon-Lynch Net worth 2024 (estimated)
| | How much is Tao Porchon-Lynch worth? | $5,000,000
| | Nationality: | French, Indian, American | | Hair color: | Grey | | Eyes color: | Light green |
Who was Tao Porchon-Lynch? / Facts
- Childhood and early life - Tao was born in 1918 in Pondicherry, India (which was a French colony until 1954), to a French father and Indian mother who died giving birth to her. She was raised by her aunt and uncle.
Her uncle, Vital Porchon, who built railroad lines in Asia and Africa, often brought her along for trips around Asia, travelling as far as Singapore.
It was from her uncle that she learned life’s important lessons. To her, he embodied the power of positivity and mindfulness.
The family owned vineyards in the wine region of the Rhône River Valley, located in Southern France, a fact that would explain her passion for wine later on in life.
Tao grew up speaking French and Meitei, a Sino-Tibetan language predominant in Manipur, northeastern India.
She was 8 years old, when she saw young boys, barely older than her, creating beautiful shapes with their bodies on the beach.
This encounter got her interested in yoga, and doing the amazing things that they were doing with their bodies.
She tried imitating them, but was told by her aunt that it was not a “ladylike” thing to do.
Going against the advice of her aunt, Tao started practising yoga, although she did not get involved in it professionally until much later in her life.
In her youth, Tao met the Indian nationalist Mahatma Gandhi, who was her uncle's close acquaintance, marching with him for social justice on two separate occasions in 1930.
She also participated in demonstrations with General Charles de Gaulle and, in the 1963 March on Washington with Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 1939, she set sail for France from India to live with her aunt, and would eventually participate in the French Resistance.
- Modelling - In her early career, Tao found success as a model in the fashion industry, winning several titles, including "Best Legs in Europe".
For a period of time she was signed under the Lever Brothers. She travelled around the globe modeling in such cities as Paris, London etc.
During the 2nd World War, Porchon moved to London and became a cabaret performer.
Famous journalist Quentin Reynolds noticed Tao, writing that she made a "dark London brighter".
- Acting and TV - After the 2nd World War, Tao relocated to the United States, where she got a job as an actress under Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, appearing in various Hollywood motion pictures, including Show Boat (1951), and The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), in which she co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor.
During her career as an actress, she frequently gave free yoga sessions to her fellow actors and actresses.
She then worked as a writer, producer and international film broker, rubbing shoulders with old Hollywood and Indian cinema celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Dev Anand.
She was also featured in multiple TV shows such as The Bob Hope Show and I Married Joan, and the documentary If You’re Not In the Obit, Eat Breakfast, a television film which premiered in 2017.
Tao had appeared on America’s Got Talent, Live with Kelly and Ryan and The Steve Harvey Show among other international talk and variety shows.
- Yoga teaching - Later on, Tao, now a married woman, became more serious in yoga.
Having studied with yoga greats Sri Aurobindo and Indra Devi, she abandoned her acting job in 1967, deciding to become a full-time yogi.
Tao taught yoga to actors in Hollywood, including Clark Gable. Jack LaLanne was the first to hire her to teach yoga.
Tao's yoga classes and workshops were extremely popular. She considered her students as her teachers and had traveled the world while sharing her unique technique.
In 1976, Tao became one of the founders of the Yoga Teachers Alliance, now known as the Yoga Teachers Association.
She based her operations in New York and set up the Westchester Institute of Yoga in 1982, which now has students from all over the world.
In 1995, with Indra Devi, she flew to Israel to attend the Yoga for Peace International Peace Conference.
Tao has also been one of B.K.S.Iyengar's disciples in yoga and reportedly his first "foreign" student.
Known for her untiring energy and spirit, Tao continued to teach her students how to master yoga at the Fred Astaire Studio in Hartsdale well into age 101, having had a career of 56 years in this field.
In addition to teaching 8 classes a week, she hosted yoga retreats and spoke at conferences, like TED Talks etc, at more than 20 destinations a year.
- Guinness World Records List - Tao has embraced her age and carried her yoga with her.
While always well-known in certain Hollywood and yoga circles, including serving on the Newark Peace Education Summit with the Dalai Lama in 2011, she was never a celebrity known to the masses.
That would change when she turned 93.
She received the Guinness World Records title of world's oldest yoga teacher from Berniece Bates in May 2012.
Tao was 93 when she broke the world record.
In 2013, in collaboration with Tara Stiles, she released a DVD on yoga, titled Yoga with Tao Porchon-Lynch.
Tao has also received the Guinness World Records title of World’s Oldest Ballroom Dancer in 2017.
She had been featured in the Yoga Journal and O Magazine.
- Writing - In addition, she published a book about meditation, titled Reflections: The Yogic Journey of Life.
- Dancing - Tao involved herself in competitive dancing, particularly in ballroom tango.
She took up ballroom dancing at age 87, and over the past fifteen years, she had developed into an accomplished competitive dancer, winning more than 7 first-place awards.
Her dancing partner was Anton Bilozorov, who was more than 70 years her junior.
She participated in 4 ballroom competitions every year.
In 2015, at age 96, she appeared on NBC's “America’s Got Talent”, receiving a standing ovation from the show's judges.
Many of her performances are available on the YouTube platform.
- Passion for wine - In 1967, Tao assisted with her spouse in the establishment of the American Wine Society (AWS).
When it split into different branches across the U.S., she was selected in 1970 to be the Vice-President of the AWS in Southern New York.
She also frequently appeared as part of the judging panel in various wine competitions.
She later became the publisher and editor-in-chief of the wine appreciation magazine, The Beverage Communicator, distributed by the AWS.
With her fellow yoga practitioners, Tao organized annual wine appreciation trips to France.
- Awards - In 2016, Tao received the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Pioneer Award at the United Nations, in recognition of her achievements in the sports world.
In 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi awarded her the prestigious Padma Shri Award for exceptional achievement.
- Personal life - Tao married Bill Lynch, an insurance salesman, in 1962, but became widowed after her husband died in 1982.
The couple had no children.
- Trivia - Tao received 4 hip replacement surgeries, and suffered a broken wrist.
Ever the style icon, she was a fan of high heel shoes and would even hike with them, once scaling Machu Picchu in stilettos.
She adored wearing black leather pants with a fur coat draped over.
Her nails and lips were always painted in bright colors.
At age 100, she was a brand ambassador for Athleta, Gap's athletic-wear brand - the line of women's fitness clothes, and once graced the cover of a catalog for their "Power of She" campaign.
Being a convinced vegetarian, in her spare time, Tao enjoyed meditating.
She drove her Smart car until her latest years.
- Social media - Tao had 70.1K followers on her Instagram account as of February 2020.
- Death - Tao died on 21 February, 2020. Joyce Pine, a close friend and student of hers, wrote in an email to The Journal News, "Our beloved TAO passed away this morning, peacefully and without pain. As she would say, she is now dancing her way to the next planet."
Bio / wiki sources: Wikipedia, accounts on social media, content from our users.
Quotes
Nothing’s impossible. Whatever you want to do in life, you can do it.
[of Yoga] If boys can do it, so can I.
When I get up in the morning, I don’t think about all the things that are going to happen, whether it’s good or bad. I say to myself, ‘This is going to be the best day of my life.
I'm going to teach yoga until I can't breathe anymore.
To me 101 is natural. It doesn’t scare me. I awake with the sun and think of all my many friends and that makes me ready to know that you never put anything off for tomorrow because tomorrow never comes.
I watch the beauty of nature. It is telling me that even the trees get more beautiful as they age.
Yoga is the joining of our mind, body and spirit. It is like nature, everything is always recycled and brought full circle. I find that I can heal myself if I do what nature does. It’s taken away stress and has helped me through crisis.
My uncle would say, "Never ask anyone to understand you, try and understand them. Never look down upon anyone."
Every morning he'd say, 'It's a beautiful day, isn't it? Wake up each day thinking it's going to be a great day, and it will be."
I never thought anything about age. I believed sincerely and still do, that there’s nothing I cannot do. I believe that all the power in the universe is right inside me.
To me yoga is in every animal, every blade of grass and it’s alive with the energy of life. If I can feel it within me, then I’m in touch with everyone in this room.
I don’t want to wake up and think, ‘oh I have to do this, oh I have to do that’. I don’t believe in that at all. I really and truly believe, that whatever you put in your mind materializes.
Yoga taught me first how to breathe, how to look at things in life, don’t jump to conclusions – feel what’s going on inside of you and determine if it’s worth spending time bemoaning things that seem wrong. I don’t want to sit there and think about the bad things that have happened. I am only interested in what I can do.
Make sure positive thoughts are the first ones you think in the morning. And never procrastinate.
I’ve learned that if you face trials head on, you can find more strength. Don’t run away from what looks like a challenge. It may be an important part of your path. You have to be persistent and follow what you believe.
The verb is the action of speech, the energy behind the thought of people. It shows you how they think. Learn the verb even if you don’t know any other words. Learn that and you will be able to make contact with people. You will be able to go anywhere and be with anyone. It will put you on the right path and you will find Oneness with them.
When I feel that I can’t face the world, I tune into my inner self and I do some yoga and then the whole world is full of sunshine.
Don’t put too much on your plate! Don’t overeat. Don’t fill your mind with fear. Tomorrow never comes, don’t procrastinate.
One hundred year old trees still recycle themselves and come out with new flowers. Reinvent yourself. Know that nature gives you the clues to living.
Autumn is a reminder that while the leaves die and fall, there will always be Spring, a change to replenish and be born again. We all have the opportunity to replenish ourselves, to be reborn.
In my head I’m still in my 20’s, and I have no intention of ever growing up.
I never say goodbye, I say, “au-revoir.” Goodbye is so final. Au-revoir means I will see you again.
I smile at the world and it smiles back.
I’m going to teach yoga until I can’t breathe anymore then I’ll just fly away to the next planet…
Tao Porchon-Lynch Social Media Accounts
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Wiki & wealth sources: Wikipedia, TMDb, social media accounts, users content, wealth specialized websites
Last update: 27 February 2020
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Net worth: $5,000,000
