Chow was born in Lamma Island, Hong Kong, to Chow Yung-wan, who worked on a Shell Oil Company tanker, and Chan Lai-fong, who was a cleaning lady and vegetable farmer.[2][3][4][5] Chow grew up in a farming community on Lamma Island, in a house with no electricity.[6][7][8] He woke up at dawn each morning to help his mother sell herbal jelly and Hakka tea-pudding on the streets; in the afternoons, he went to work in the fields. His family moved to Kowloon when he was ten. At 17, Chow left school to help support the family by doing odd jobs including a bellboy,[9] postman, camera salesman, and taxi driver.
Career
In 1973, the 18-year-old Chow responded to a newspaper advertisement for TVB's actor training program. After a one-year training, he signed a three-year contract with the TV station and made his acting debut in soap operas. He gained recognition in such dramas as The Killer (1976) and Hotel (1976). He had his breakout role in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1979), followed by The Bund, a series about the gangsters in 1930s Shanghai. The latter made Chow a star across Asia.
Chow Yun-fat at the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in 2007
Although Chow continued his TV success, his goal was to become a film actor. He made his film debut in 1976 after signing an exclusive contract with Goldig Films, then the third largest film company in Hong Kong.[10] Goldig Films, founded and solely-funded by Indonesian Chinese businessman Gouw Hiap Kian[11], produced and distributed over 100 movies from 1972 to 1982.[12] However, Chow's occasional ventures into low-budget films in the 1980s after ones by Goldig were disastrous.[13] Most of Chow's movies with Goldig Films in the 1970s achieved high gross revenues of over HK$1 million per movie, which is a better box office performance than his movies in early 1980s, such as Modern Heroes (江湖檔案), Soul Ash (灰靈), The Bund (上海灘), The Bund Part 2 (上海灘續集).[14]
Success came when he teamed up with film director John Woo in the 1986 gangster action-melodrama A Better Tomorrow, which swept the box offices in Asia and established Chow and Woo as megastars. A Better Tomorrow won him his first Best Actor award at the Hong Kong Film Awards. It was the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong history at the time, and set a new standard for Hong Kong gangster films. Taking the opportunity, Chow quit TV entirely. With his new image from A Better Tomorrow, he made many more 'gun fu' or 'heroic bloodshed' films, such as A Better Tomorrow II (1987), Prison on Fire (1987), Prison on Fire II (1991), The Killer (1989), A Better Tomorrow 3 (1990), Hard Boiled (1992) and City on Fire (1987), an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.
Chow may be best known for playing honorable tough guys, whether cops or criminals, but he has also starred in comedies like Diary of a Big Man (1988) and Now You See Love, Now You Don't (1992) and romantic blockbusters such as Love in a Fallen City (1984) and An Autumn's Tale (1987), for which he was named Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards. He brought together his disparate personae in the 1989 film God of Gamblers, directed by the prolific Wong Jing, in which he was by turns a suave charmer, a broad comedian, and an action hero. The film surprised many, became immensely popular, broke Hong Kong's all-time box office record, and spawned a series of gambling films as well as several comic sequels starring Andy Lau and Stephen Chow. The often tough demeanour and youthful appearance of Chow's characters has earned him the nickname "Babyface Killer".
In 2007, Chow played the pirate captain Sao Feng in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. However, his part was omitted when the movie was shown in mainland China, where, according to Chinese unofficial sources, government censors felt that Chow's character "vilified and humiliated" Chinese people.[17]
Chow married twice; first in 1983 to Candice Yu, an actress with Asia Television; the marriage lasted nine months. In 1986, Chow married Singaporean Jasmine Tan. Due to a stillborn daughter in 1991, they decided not to have children. Chow has a goddaughter, Celine Ng, a former child model.
In 2018, Chow’s wife Jasmine Tan disclosed that Chow’s net worth was HK$ 5.6b, which was not verified by any third party. Chow said he would donate 99% of his wealth to charity.[21]
Chow maintains a modest public image by frequenting food stalls and public transportation in Hong Kong.[22] Chow ran a half marathon in less than 2 hours 30 minutes in November, 2023.
[23]
In October 2014, Chow voiced support for students in the Umbrella Movement, a civil rights movement for universal suffrage in Hong Kong.[24][25][26]
Chow has appeared in over 95 films and over 25 television series.
Bibliography
On 26 June 2008, Chow released his first photo collection, which includes pictures taken on the sets of his films. Proceeds from the book's sales were donated to Sichuan earthquake victims. It is published by Louis Vuitton.[27][28]
^Song Il-seop (5 October 2023). "[MD포토] 아시아 영화인상 수상한 주윤발 (부산국제영화제)" [[MD Photo] Chow Yun-Fat, winner of the Asian Film Actor Award (Busan International Film Festival)]. My Daily (in Korean). Naver. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
