Kwan Tak Hing
| Kwan Tak-hing | |
|---|---|
| Chinese name | 關德興 (traditional) |
| Chinese name | 关德兴 (simplified) |
| Pinyin | Guān Déxīng (Mandarin) |
| Jyutping | Gwaan1 Dak1 Hing1 (Cantonese) |
| Born |
27 June 1905 Guangzhou, China (Qing Dynasty) |
| Died | 28 June 1996 (aged 91) British Hong Kong |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1933 - 1994 |
| Ancestry | Kaiping, Guangdong, China |
Kwan Tak-hing, MBE (27 June 1905 – 28 June 1996) was a Hong Kong actor who played the role of martial artist folk hero Wong Fei-hung in at least 77 films, between the 1940s and the 1980s. No-one else in cinema history has portrayed the same person as many times. In total he made over 130 films. He was elected in 1955 as the chairman of Chinese Artist Association of Hong Kong. He was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 1983.
Kwan was born in Guangzhou, China in 1905. He was the second child in the family. His father died of a disease at a young age. To supplement his family's income, as a boy, Kwan worked as a cowherd. When he was 12, he began work in construction. At the age of 13, he worked as a waiter in a restaurant in Singapore before joining a Cantonese opera troupe under Cheng Hsin-pei.
His film debut was in The Singing Lovers (aka Romance of the Songsters), made in the US for the Grandview Studios and only the second Cantonese-language talkie ever made. His first starring roles came two years later in Song of the Yesterday (aka Yesterday's Song) and Song of Sadness (both 1935). Kwan's first martial arts film was Knight of the Whip (1936). During World War II he was in a troupe of patriotic entertainers and had a price put on his head by the Japanese.
The first film in which he starred as Wong Fei-hung was the Story of Huang Feihong part 1 (1949) directed by Wu Pang and produced by the Yong Yao Film Company. The film included Shih Kien as the villain and Li Lan, the very first winner of the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, and the first of many winners who would become famous actresses in Hong Kong). This partnership was a huge success and spawned many sequels, exploring many ideas and situations used in later action films. In 1956, a total of 25 Wong Fei-hung films were released.
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