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| Birth Name(s) : Tony Leung Chiu Wai |
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Full Tony Leung Chiu Wai Biography
To distinguish him from fellow actor Tony Leung Ka-Fai, he is known colloquially in Hong Kong as "Short Tony", while Ka-fai is known as "Big Tony", nicknames which correspond to the actors' respective physical statures.
Leung was born in Hong Kong, though his family came from Taishan, Guangdong, China. Leung's early childhood was punctuated with parents' quarrels and arguments about money. A mischievous boy in his early years, Leung's personality changed when his father, a chronic gambler, left the family when he was eight; he and his younger sister were brought up single-handedly by their mother.
Leung became a reticient, quiet child; his childhood experiences made it difficult for him to trust in marriage and paved the way for his acting career, which allow him "to express my emotions without me getting embarrassed. I can cry or smash things on the set, but no one knows that's just acting or that's how I am really feeling." "After my father left me when I was eight, I became afraid to talk to other people. In school, when other children talked about their parents, I would get very embarrassed. I didn't want to mention my father, so I seldom talked to others".
After quitting his studies, Leung worked in a variety of jobs, first as a grocer's runner at his uncle's shop, then a showroom salesman in a Hong Kong shopping centre. He met actor and comedian Stephen Chow who influenced his decision to become an actor and remains a good friend.
In 1982 he passed the training courses of television channel TVB. Due to his boyish looks, TVB cast him as host of a children's programme, 430 Space Shuttle. Leung enjoyed comedies during his television years; it was for these he became well known.
Many consider Tony Leung's role in director John Woo's 1992 action film Hard Boiled in which he co-starred with Chow Yun-Fat, as his breakthrough role in film. However, Leung first gained international exposure through Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 1989 film A City of Sadness, which won the Venice Golden Lion.
Leung often collaborates with director Wong Kar-wai and has appeared in many of his films. His most notable roles in Wong Kar-wai's films include the lonely policeman in Chungking Express (1994), a gay Chinese expatriate living in Argentina in Happy Together (1997), and a self-controlled victim of adultery in In the Mood for Love (2000), for which he won the Best Actor award at Cannes.
He is considered by many to be the finest actor of his generation in Hong Kong. Robert De Niro is an admirer of his work, and Leung has been called Asia's answer to Clark Gable.
Leung also has an on-and-off Cantopop and Mandarin pop singing career and sang the theme song of Infernal Affairs with Andy Lau.
Leung has dated Carina Lau since the end of 1989. He had known her since The Replica in 1984 as she had been good friends with Margie Tsang, his previous girlfriend. He worked on-screen with Lau in Replica (1984), Duke of Mount Deer (1984), Police Cadet (1984, 1985, 1988), The Yangs' Saga (1985), Days of Being Wild (1991), He ain't heavy, he's my father (1993), Ashes of Time (1994), and 2046 (2005).
In 1990, during the filming of Days of Being Wild, Lau was abducted for several hours, and topless photos of her were snapped (years later, Hong Kong tabloids published photos of a nude and frightened Lau). It is now believed that the man behind the kidnapping is a show business entrepreneur with whom Lau was having a financial dispute.
Wong Kar-wai said, "Originally, there were plans for Days of Being Wild I and II, and the sequence featuring Tony Leung was meant to be the opening scene of the second movie. But two things happened, one of which was that Days of Being Wild didn't do well in Hong Kong, so the producers said, "No Part 2." The other reason was the incident of Carina Lau's kidnapping".
Leung has said that Lau never wanted to talk about what happened in those missing hours with anyone, including him. "I told her that was fine, I had no right to ask," he said. "I was just glad to have her home safe" He then told Wong Kar Wai that he did not want to go back to work anytime soon. "A human being is more important than a movie," he said.
Their first TV serial together was the highly successful Police Cadet in 1984 (later named Police Cadet 84 to distinguish it from subsequent sequels). Leung played an outgoing young man who decides to become a police officer in order to earn a living for his family; Cheung played a shy bookworm, Tony's upstairs neighbour and love interest. Since then they have worked together on The Yangs' Saga (1985), Days of Being Wild (1991), Ashes of Time (1994), In the Mood for Love (2000), Hero (2002), and 2046 (2005).
"She is like my alter ego. We started our careers at almost the same time and acted opposite each other in our first television series and on some other occasions - like on the Days of Being Wild sequel, which was never released, and on Ashes of Time. But we did not work opposite each other again until In the Mood for Love. Maggie is a truly formidable partner - one to waltz with. We do not spend a lot of time with each other, as we like to keep some mystery between us. Whenever I see her, I discover something new about her". |
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