Mr Bow Fong

1922-2006

Actor

Actor and director Bow Fong was born Bau Gai Wun in Jiangxi. During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, he fled to Guilin where he developed an interest in stage performance and made the acquaintance of playwright Ouyang Yuqian. In 1948, Bow came to Hong Kong. Through Ouyang Yuqian’s introduction he joined Yung Hwa Motion Pictures, making his first appearance in The Soul of China (1948). He was subsequently invited by director Zhu Shilin to join Feng Huang and Great Wall. Bow acted in more than 50 films; these include Year In, Year Out (1955), Thunderstorm (1961) and Garden of Repose (1964). In Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1960), he displayed his skills in Peking opera, Yue opera, crosstalk and Huangmeidiao opera singing. In 1959, he co-directed A Teenage Girl (1960) with Chan Ching Po, the first of 18 titles he helmed that also included Romance Across the Window (1962), The Painted Skin (1966) and Chu Yuan (1977). From 1980, Bow began appearing in TV drama series, such as Yesterday’s Glitter (1980), Love and Passion (1982) and A Kindred Spirit (1995), but was forced to retire after a stroke in 1999. Bow received a Special Honour Award from the Performing Artists Guild of China in 1993, the Chinese Film Stars Special Award in 1995 and the Top 100 Actors in a Century of Chinese Cinema Award in 2006. In 2000, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hong Kong Film Critics Association in 2000.