29 Facts About Chow Yun-fat

Chow Yun-fat is perhaps best known for his collaborations with filmmaker John Woo in the five Hong Kong action heroic bloodshed films: A Better Tomorrow, A Better Tomorrow II, The Killer, Once a Thief and Hard Boiled, and in the West for his roles as Li Mu-bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Sao Feng in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Chow Yun-fat mainly plays in drama films and has won three Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor and two Golden Horse Awards for Best Actor in Taiwan.

Chow Yun-fat was born in Lamma Island, Hong Kong, to Chow Yun-fat Yung-wan, who worked on a Shell Oil Company tanker, and Chan Lai-fong, who was a cleaning lady and vegetable farmer.

Chow Yun-fat grew up in a farming community on Lamma Island, in a house with no electricity.

Chow Yun-fat 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.

Chow Yun-fat's family moved to Kowloon when he was ten.

At 17, Chow Yun-fat left school to help support the family by doing odd jobs including a bellboy, postman, camera salesman, and taxi driver.

Chow Yun-fat's life started to change after college when he responded to a newspaper advertisement, and his actor-trainee application was accepted by TVB, the local television station.

Chow Yun-fat signed a three-year contract with the studio and made his acting debut.

Chow Yun-fat became a heartthrob and familiar face in soap operas that were exported internationally.

Chow Yun-fat was identified by Goldig to be an actor before he applied to TVB as a trainee.

Chow Yun-fat's first film contract was an exclusive acting contract with Goldig Films.

Chow Yun-fat appeared in the 1980 TV series The Bund on TVB.

Chow Yun-fat 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 often tough demeanour and youthful appearance of Chow Yun-fat's characters has earned him the nickname "Babyface Killer".

Chow Yun-fat accepted the role of Li Mu-bai in the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

In 2003, Chow Yun-fat came back to Hollywood and starred in Bulletproof Monk.

In 2004, Chow Yun-fat made a surprise cameo in director Dayyan Eng's Chinese rom-com favourite Waiting Alone, it was the first time he was in a mainland Chinese film.

In 2007, Chow Yun-fat 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 Yun-fat's character "vilified and humiliated" Chinese people.

In 2014, Chow Yun-fat returned to Hong Kong cinema in From Vegas to Macau.

In 2015 and 2016, Chow Yun-fat reprised his role as Ken in the sequels From Vegas to Macau II and From Vegas to Macau III.

On 26 June 2008, Chow Yun-fat released his first photo collection, which includes pictures taken on the sets of his films.

Chow Yun-fat has been married twice; first was in 1983 to Candice Yu, an actress from Asia Television; the marriage lasted nine months.

Chow Yun-fat has a goddaughter, Celine Ng, a former child model for Chickeeduck, McDonald's, Toys 'R' Us and other companies.

In 2014, Chow Yun-fat was the second-highest earning actor in Hong Kong, earning HK$170 million.

Chow Yun-fat is frequently seen at food stalls and on public transportation.

In October 2014, Chow Yun-fat voiced support for students in the Umbrella Movement, a civil rights movement for universal suffrage in Hong Kong.

Chow Yun-fat has appeared in over 95 films and over 25 television series.