1. Chow Yun-fat was propelled to fame by TVB dramas such as The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and The Bund.
31 Facts About Chow Yun-fat
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Chow Yun-fat's first acclaimed film was the Hong Kong political drama The Story of Woo Viet, in which he played a Vietnamese refugee struggling to reach the United States.
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Chow Yun-fat is known for his collaborations with filmmaker John Woo in five Hong Kong action films: A Better Tomorrow, which made Chow a box-office superstar in Asia, A Better Tomorrow II, The Killer, Once a Thief, and Hard Boiled.
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Chow Yun-fat starred in the video game Stranglehold, produced by Woo.
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Chow Yun-fat made several popular action films with Hong Kong director Ringo Lam, including City on Fire, Prison on Fire, and Full Contact.
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Chow Yun-fat is credited for bringing Hong Kong gangster films to world prominence.
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Chow Yun-fat made his Hollywood debut in The Replacement Killers.
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Chow Yun-fat is known in the West for The Corruptor, Anna and the King, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Bulletproof Monk, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
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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.
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Chow Yun-fat grew up in a farming community on Lamma Island, in a house with no electricity.
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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.
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Chow Yun-fat's family moved to Kowloon when he was ten.
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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.
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In 1973, the 18-year-old Chow Yun-fat responded to a newspaper advertisement for TVB's actor training program.
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Chow Yun-fat gained recognition in such dramas as The Killer and Hotel.
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Chow Yun-fat had his breakout role in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, followed by The Bund, a series about the gangsters in 1930s Shanghai.
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Chow Yun-fat made his film debut in 1976 after signing an exclusive contract with Goldig Films, then the third largest film company in Hong Kong.
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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.
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The often tough demeanour and youthful appearance of Chow Yun-fat's characters has earned him the nickname "Babyface Killer".
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Chow Yun-fat accepted the role of Li Mu-bai in the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
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In 2003, Chow Yun-fat came back to Hollywood and starred in Bulletproof Monk.
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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.
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In 2007, Chow Yun-fat played the pirate captain Sao Feng in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
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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.
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From 2014 to 2016, Chow Yun-fat reunited with his God of Gamblers director Wong Jing to make the From Vegas to Macau franchise.
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Chow Yun-fat has a goddaughter, Celine Ng, a former child model.
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Chow Yun-fat maintains a modest public image by frequenting food stalls and public transportation in Hong Kong.
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Chow Yun-fat ran a half marathon in less than 2 hours 30 minutes in November 2023.
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In October 2014, Chow Yun-fat voiced support for students in the Umbrella Movement, a civil rights movement for universal suffrage in Hong Kong.
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Chow Yun-fat has appeared in over 95 films and over 25 television series.
31.
On 26 June 2008, Chow Yun-fat released his first photo collection, which includes pictures taken on the sets of his films.