Fan Siu-Ming
Fan Siu-Ming appeared in a great number of kung fu movies produced through the late 1970's to early 1990's. He was usually regulated to supporting roles, but played lead characters in films like "The Story of Ricky". Despite his large size, he showed a good deal of grace during fighting scenes.
Notable movies: The Story of Ricky, The Postman Strikes Back, Dreadnaught
Fan Siu-Wong (aka Terry Fan, Louis Fan)
When he was a teenager, Fan Siu-Wong was sent by his father (Fan Siu-Ming) to Mainland China to study martial arts. After his return, Siu-Wong appeared in a number of movies during the late 1980's and early 1990's. He never quite caught on with local audiences on the big screen (though several of his movies like "The Story of Ricky" have become cult favorites) but found steady work on TV, where he continues to work -- as well as appearing in the occasional B-list project -- to this day.
Notable movies: The Story of Ricky, Stone Age Warriors, Project S, Shaolin Vs. Evil Dead
Faye Wong
Faye Wong (whose Chinese name is Wong Ching-Nam) left her home in the Mainland when she was eighteen to go to Hong Kong and pursue a singing career. After a couple of years, not only had she released her first album, but had begun acting as well, appearing on several soap operas. However, she soon grew tired of the strict controls her studio kept on her image and music, and so Wong moved to New York City for a time. Upon her return, Wong had adopted the English name "Faye" and released a new album that had both Western and traditional Chinese influences. The album was a smash hit and film offers soon began pouring in.
Wong accepted a role on Wong Kar-Wai's 1994 movie "Chungking Express", which made her an international star. However, the glare of the HK tabloids (mostly due to her rumored affair with young actor Nicholas Tse while she was still married to her first husband) forced Wong from the film spotlight, and she did not appear in another movie until 2000, with "Okinowa Rendezvous". Since then, Wong has continued to release popular albums and appearing in the (very) occassional movie.
Notable movies: Chungking Express, 2046
Francoise Yip
Francoise Yip grew up in Toronto and was a part-time model when she went to a casting call for Jackie Chan's "Rumble in the Bronx". Ather her appearance in the movie, Yip was offered film roles in Hong Kong. Her work there was, for the most part, of the "jade vase" (look pretty and say nothing) variety. But her work in Jet Li's "Black Mask" proved that she could look good while kicking ass, and the movie's modest international success garnered her attention from Hollywood producers. She soon moved back to Canada, where she has found work on both movies and television shows.
Notable movies: Rumble in the Bronx, Black Mask, Web of Deception
Frankie Chan Chi-Leung
Just as quickly as he appeared, Frankie Chan Chi-Leung seemed to disappear from the HK film scene. Chan won a bodybuilding competition in the early 1990's. His large physique and stern look led to a series of film roles, where he usually played the burly bodyguard of the movie's main villain.
Notable movies: Full Contact, Magic Cop, Fatal Mission
Frankie Chan Fan-Kei
Frankie Chan Fan-Kei began his career as a composer in the 1970's. By the 1980's, Chan had moved on to appearing in front of the camera, where he displayed impressive talent as both a martial artist and actor, as well as writing and/or directing various projects. Adding yet another notch to his belt, Chan began producing films by the end of the decade. Chan has since reigned in his output, but continuues to be one of the more sought-after composers working in Hong Kong movies today.
Notable movies: The Prodigal Son, Burning Ambition, Chungking Express
Gabriel "Turtle" Wong
Gabriel Wong (who is nicknamed "Turtle" for fairly obvious reasons) was a graduate student before trying his hand at the acting game. Wong is best known for playing Stephen Chow's sidekick in a couple of his movies like "Fight Back to School", but he also appeared in a number of martial arts and action films, where he often provided comic relief. By the end of the 1990's, due to dwindling box office receipts, Wong had moved on to working on television on the TVB network and selling roast pork with fellow TVB actor Liu Wai Hung.
Notable movies: Fight Back to School, Love on Delivery, Hail the Judge
Gallen Law (aka Gallen Lo)
Gallen Law won a singing competition sponsored by the TVB network in the early 1990's, and soon became a staple on the station. He is better-known as a singer (he sings many of the themes to TVB's shows) and TV actor, but has made a few appearances in feature films over the years, usually in supporting roles. Law's (mostly) absence from the movie world is probably due to his contract with TVB. During the late 1990's, TVB was losing its' top performers to other networks and movie studios, and so they singed Law -- one of their few remaining big stars -- to the largest "signing bonus" ever given out in HK.
Notable movies: Those Were the Days, The Gigolo of Chinese Hollywood
Gary Daniels
During the boom in Hong Kong film production of the mid-1980's-early 1990's, a great number of "gweilos" (foreigners) came to HK to try and find their fortunes. Gary Daniels (who originally hails from Austrailia) was one of the more successful ones. He only appeared in a handful of HK productions, but his appearance in Jackie Chan's "City Hunter" (where he takes on Chan while they are dressed up like characters from the "Street Fighter II" game) gave Daniels an entrance to Hollywood. Though he had never achieved "star" status, Daniels has been a mainstay of the B-list action movie, and has also produced several films.
Notable movies: City Hunter, Mission of Justice, Bloodmoon
George Lam
George Lam was born in Hong Kong, but emigrated with his family to England when he was young. Upon his return to HK in the 1970's, Lam's initial acting appearances on TV series were not greeted with much success, mostly due to the fact that his now-dulled Cantonese made him seem too "western". But Lam's music -- which recalled a simpler time in HK and was hugely popular with the older population -- kept the acting offers rolling in, and he soon moved on to movies. Lam was active in both music and film during the 1980's, but by the end of the decade, the audience demographics had made a definite shift towards the younger set, who found Lam to be dated. He continued to act sporatically through the 1990's, but by 1997, Lam retired from acting to concentrate on his singing career, where his concerts (both seperately and together with his wife, fellow singer/actor Sally Yeh) regularly sell out every performance.
Notable movies: Aces Go Places, Boat People, It's a Drink It's a Bomb
Gigi Lai
Gigi Lai started acting in the late 1980's and has been pretty active ever since. Lai has worked in a variety of genres, but she is best known for her performances in the "Young Triads" (aka "Triad Boys") genre -- most notably the popular "Young and Dangerous" series, where she has appeared as two different characters in four installments. After the waterfall of Young Triad movies went down to a trickle, Lai has tried to shed her "cutie-pie" image by taking on more dramatic roles.
Notable movies: Young and Dangerous, Born to Be King, The Kung Fu Cult Master
Gigi Leung
Gigi Leung was a college student when a producer offered her a role in a commercial. The ad caught the eye of director Derek Yee, who cast her in the Andy Lau movie "Full Throttle". With that project's success, more offers came pouring in. Leung began working with other popular actors like Stephen Chow and Jet Li, and combined with the release of a hit album, a Hong Kong "idol" was born. Even though she is now considered "old" by youth-obsessed Hong Kong's standards, Leung continues to release box office hits, mostly in the romantic comedy genre. Off-screen, she has been dating fellow actor/singer Ekin Cheng for several years and is a spokesperson for the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
Notable movies: Feel 100%, Hitman, La Brassiere
Gong Li
Considered by many critics to to be China's greatest actress, Gong Li was studying acting in college when she was picked by director Zhang Yimou to star in "Red Sorghum". Li and Yimou began dating and she appeared in several more of his movies, including "Raise the Red Lantern", which became an international hit on the "arthouse circut". Despite her success, Mainland productions never pay well, and so Li was also doing projects in Hong Kong. Most of these were decidedly not arthouse affairs, such as her work on Stephen Chow's "God of Gamblers III". Despite her becoming one of China's biggest stars, Li's output since the late 1990's has been spotty. She got married in 1996 and has only been in a few films since.
Notable movies: God of Gamblers III, Flirting Scholar, Farewell My Concubine
Gordon Liu
One of the true icons of the days of the "old school" kung fu movie, Gordon Liu has directed and acted in dozens of pictures since his debut in the 1970's. Gordon recieved his martial arts training from Lau Karn, whose sons, Lau Kar Leung and Lau Kar Wing, are respected directors. After his training, Gordon worked on Hong Kong's docks until Lau Kar Leung hired him to work on a movie, and the rest, as they say, is history. Gordon's appearances in Lau's projects, most notably "36th Chamber of Shaolin", are regarded as some of the finest pictures to come out of Hong Kong at the time.
After the death of the "old school" genre in the early 1980's, Gordon moved on to "wire fu" and general action movies, and also began directing. With the downturn of the Hong Kong studios' production in the 1990's, Gordon's output had slowed down as well. But after his appearance in Quentin Tarnatino's "Kill Bill" films, Gordon has found a new generation of fans and continues to work in both Hong Kong and China.
Notable movies: 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Dirty Ho, Tiger on the Beat, Last Hero in China
Grace Yip
Grace Yip is typical of the young "squeaky-clean cutie-pie" actress that seems to be the rage in Hong Kong these days. Like most actresses of her type, she is also a singer as well. After her debut in "Gen-X Cops", Yip was hired by the Japanese entertainment conglomerate Apex. As such, most of her work has been done there instead of Hong Kong, but she is still popular with HK teens.
Notable movies: Gen-X Cops, A Man Called Hero
Helena Law Lan
One of the most prolific actresses in the history of Hong Kong cinema, Helena Law Lan's first appearance in front of the camera was in 1939 with "A Woman of Many Husbands". Since then, she has been in hundreds of movies and TV shows. After the popularity of Cantonese movies declined in the early 1970's, Law Lan moved over almost exculsively to working on television, where she kept plugging away for the next two decades at the TVB network before once again entering the movie world with a vengeance in the late 1990's. Since her re-emergence, she has become a fixture in Triad pictures -- garnering a Hong Kong Film Award nomination for her work in 1999's "Bullets Over Summer" -- but Law Lan is best known to modern audiences for her role as a "ghost-busting granny" in horror movies, such as the long-running "Troublesome Night" series.
Notable movies: Young and Dangerous, Troublesome Night, Bullets Over Summer
Henry Fong Ping
Henry Fong Ping is one of the more recognizable character actors in the Triad genre, often playing a weaselly "dai lo" (gang leader). He began appearing in films back in the early 1960's, and has rarely stopped working since, both in front of the camera and behind it as a producer and director.
Notable movies: A Hero Never Dies, Double Tap, Cheap Killers
Hsu Chi (aka Shu Qi)
Despite their reputation for "over the top" movies, the Hong Kong film industry actually has a pretty chaste attitude when it comes to sex. Sure, there have been plenty of sexy exploitation pictures, but the HK populace's attitudes towards sexuality often make their mainstream entertainment as racy as an episode of "Leave it to Beaver". Think about it -- when's the last time you saw Jackie Chan acutally kiss a woman in one of his movies, much less have a love scene?
With that in mind, Hsu Chi definitely has one of the more interesting stories in the history of Hong Kong movies. She was born in Taiwan and wanted to be a model, but didn't find much success until she decided to to a series of "picture books" and VCDs/DVDs where she appeared nude. They were immeadiate hot sellers (and continue to be to this day -- just Google Hsu's name and you'll find literally thousands of sites selling her wares) and Hsu was hired by producer Manfred Wong to appear in Hong Kong movies, even though she didn't know any Cantonese.
Her first few roles were Category III sexploitation fare like "Sex and Zen II", and Hsu seemed destined to join the ranks of HK actresses who popped up in a couple of these movies to never be seen again. However, her work in Derek Yee's "Viva Erotica" garnered her a Hong Kong Film Award, and Hsu seemed determined to put her clothes back on and go "legit".
She began doing decidely tamer romantic comedy fare and became a hit with local audiences. Branching out further, Hsu began appearing in the popular "Young and Dangerous" Triad series, where she recieved a Hong Kong Film Award nomination for her work on "Portland Street Blues". Hsu's transformation from Cat III minx to diva next door was completed with her role in Jackie Chan's "Gorgeous" and budding relationship with Leon Lai. Her work was garenering more attention from foreigners as well, and she was chosen by Luc Besson to star in "The Transporter", which marked her English-language debut.
Notable movies: Portland Street Blues, Viva Erotica, So Close, Gorgeous, The Transporter
Hui Siu-Hung
Any fan of Johnnie To's modern crime movies will probably instantly recognize Hui Siu-Hung, who has appeared in many of that director's recent works. Besides those roles, Hui has been active in the HK movie industry since the early 1970s, after being one of the first graduates of TVB's prestigious Actor Training Class. Hui has worked in pretty much every genre during his career -- kung fu, action, drama, comedy and even a few Category III movies like "Naked Killer".
Notable movies: Naked Killer, Expect the Unexpected, Running Out of Time
Hung Ye
Known for his manic mannerisms and high-pitched voice, Hung Ye debuted in Stephen Chow's box office hit "King of Comedy" and has been working steadily ever since, most often portraying loud-mouthed young Triads.
Notable movies: King of Comedy, Metade Fumaca, Jiang Hu