Born: 18 May 1955
Birthplace: Lamma Island, Hong Kong
Best Known As: Chinese action film star

Chow Yun-Fat is known to American audiences as the charismatic, matchstick-chewing hero of John Woo action films such as A Better Tomorrow (1987), The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992). The star of over 70 films, Chow gained international fame in both comedy and drama before being associated with what are often called “heroic bloodshed” movies. In 2000 he became an international movie star after appearing with Michelle Yeoh in Ang Lee’s blockbuster hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Since then he has starred in Bulletproof Monk (2003), Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007, starring Johnny Depp).

One of the most instantly recognizable faces in Asia, Chow Yun-Fat is an actor of phenomenal renown and popularity. An icon of the action genre thanks to his numerous collaborations with Hong Kong directors John Woo and Ringo Lam, Chow gained fame playing the killer with a soul (and two large guns) in such films as Woo’s classic A Better Tomorrow, and in doing so, inspired new trends in action filmmaking. However, although he is best known on the international level for his work in action films, Chow has also acted in films of almost every conceivable genre, proving himself equally adept in melodramas, romances, and comedies alike.

Born on May 18, 1955, on Lamma, a small island off of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor, Chow moved with his family to Hong Kong proper in 1965. Influenced early on by the Cantonese Opera, the yearly Goddess of the Sea festivals, and American movies, he got his start as a professional actor while still in his teens. Chow’s first break came in 1973, when he answered a newspaper ad by the TVB, a Hong Kong TV station. He enrolled in the station’s training program for young actors, training in the company of friend and future director Ringo Lam. While working for the TVB, Chow performed in a number of soap operas. In the early ’80s, he would star in the station’s popular series Shanghai Beach, earning lasting fame as the ultra-cool gangster Hui Man-Keung.

Chow broke into films in the mid-’70s, winning a lead role in the forgettable Massage Girls in 1976. He had his first critical success five years later as the star of Ann Hui’s The Story of Wu Viet; unfortunately, the acclaim he earned for his portrayal of a South Vietnamese soldier was subsequently overshadowed by a period of personal and professional problems marked by a string of largely unimpressive films and a short-lived marriage with fellow TV star Candice Yu On-On.