Tony Leung Chiu-wai

Tony Leung Chiu-wai (, born 27 June 1962) is a Hong Kong actor and singer.

He is one of Asia's most successful and internationally recognized actors.

He has won many international acting prizes, including the Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actor for his performance in Wong Kar-wai's film In the Mood for Love.

He was named by CNN as one of "Asia's 25 Greatest Actors of All Time".

He has said that his childhood experiences paved the way for his acting career, which allows him to openly express his feelings:"You don't know what happened, just one day your pop disappears. And from that day on I try not to communicate with anyone. I'm so afraid to talk to my classmates, afraid that if someone says something about family I won't know what to do. So I became very isolated. So that's why I love acting, because I can express all my feelings the way I couldn't for so long. I'm a quiet person. And then when I went to TV it all came out; I cried and I wasn't ashamed. The audience thinks it's the character's feelings, but really it's my feelings, all coming out in a rush."Leung went to Delia Memorial School (Broadway), but quit at age 15, in 1977, due to financial difficulties.

He was very close to his mother.

During an interview on the making of Hero, he said that he saw his mother as his definition of a hero for having brought up two children alone.

After quitting his studies, Leung worked in a variety of jobs, first as a grocer's runner at his uncle's shop, then a home appliance salesman in a Hong Kong shopping centre.

Around the age of 16, he met future actor and comedian Stephen Chow, who influenced his decision to become an actor and remains a good friend.

Leung has an extensive list of awards that he has won in a career that began in the 1980s.

For In the Mood for Love, Leung earned the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival.

He is also a seven-time winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards and three-time winner at the Golden Horse Film Awards, holding the record for most awards in the Best Actor category.

In the 1980s, he was named one of "TVB's Five Tigers" (their five popular young leading actors), along with Andy Lau, Felix Wong, Michael Miu and Kent Tong.

Before that he was already known in Hong Kong for his TV shows and films in the mid-1980s.

Leung's initial transition from television to film in the late '80s and early '90s is considered a low period in his career.

He had won two HKFA Best Supporting Actor awards in quick succession but was struggling to establish himself as a leading man on the big screen.

In 1982, he graduated from television channel TVB's acting class.

Due to his boyish looks, TVB initially cast him as the host of a children's programme, 430 Space Shuttle, but soon moved him to drama roles, beginning with Soldier of Fortune (1982).

He was quickly promoted to leading man status in primetime series, including The Duke of Mount Deer (1984) and New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre (1986).

Leung mostly enjoyed comedies during his television years; it was for these he became well known.

Leung starred in the popular Police Cadet TV serial in 1984 (later named Police Cadet 84 to distinguish it from its two sequels).

The series had an average viewership rating of 50% per episode during its original run.

Leung played an outgoing young man who decides to become a police officer; Maggie Cheung, whose career started at the same time, played Leung's upstairs neighbour and love interest.

Since then they have worked together on The Yang's Saga (1985), Days of Being Wild (1991), The Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993), Ashes of Time (1994), In the Mood for Love (2000), Hero (2002), and 2046 (2005).

Leung has said that he considers Cheung his alter ego, and that "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".

After eight years with TVB, Leung left the network to focus on his film career.

He also appeared in three Venice Film Festival Golden Lion-winning films: A City of Sadness (1989), Cyclo (1995) and Lust, Caution (2007), directed by Ang Lee.

His final TV drama was Ode to Gallantry in 1989.

Many consider Leung the most acclaimed contemporary actor in Greater China.

He first garnered international attention in Hou Hsiao-hsien's 1989 film A City of Sadness, which won the Venice Golden Lion.

In 1992, when he was nominated for a third time in the Supporting Actor category for Hard Boiled, Leung refused the nomination on the grounds that he had a leading role in the film.

His protest was supported by director John Woo and co-star Chow Yun-fat.

Leung is known for his collaborations with director Wong Kar-wai, with whom he has worked in seven films, including Chungking Express (1994), Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love (2000), 2046 (2004), and The Grandmaster (2013).

Leung also starred in the Academy Award-nominated film Hero (2002), the cult classic Hard Boiled (1992), and box office hits Infernal Affairs (2002) and Red Cliff (2008).

He later came to prominence in Hollywood with his role in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).

The 2002 book East Asian Film Stars describes Leung as "undoubtedly one of the most successful and widely-acclaimed Hong Kong actors of his generation, with a broad and diverse filmography."

Leung was born in Hong Kong to a family of Taishan, Guangdong ancestry.

His early childhood was punctuated by his parents' quarrels and arguments about money.

A mischievous boy in his early years, Leung changed after his father, a chronic gambler, left the family when he was eight; he and his younger sister were brought up by their mother.

Leung was a slightly reticent, quiet child.