In 1972, 80-year-old Pearl Buck was denied an entry visa into China—reportedly for having criticized Mao Zedong, the head of the Chinese Communist Party, by name in the 1950s and because she had invited an actress who had once been chosen over Mao's wife for a movie role to visit the United States. Buck passed away the following year. The ban the Chinese Communist Party had placed on her books in 1949 was officially lifted in 1994.