Mr Cheung Wood Yau

1910-1985

Actor

Also known as Cheung Kin Yu, Cheung Wood Yau began his career in 1936 as a principal actor in both civil and martial roles in Cantonese opera. But it was in Hong Kong three years later, in the film Breaking through the Bronze Net (1939), that he made his big screen debut. Cheung’s career peaked between 1949 and 1952 when he averaged an output of 20-plus films a year, including the two-part blockbuster Crime Doesn’t Pay (1949). Cheung specialised in portraying weak scholars, “Mr Nice Guys”, obedient sons and loving fathers. In 1952, together with likeminded partners such as Ng Cho Fan and Pak Yin, he co-founded Union Film Enterprise with the aim of improving the quality of Cantonese cinema. He was involved in the studio’s founding films: Family (1952), Spring (1953), Autumn (1954), Father and Son (1954) and Romance at the Western Chamber (1956). In 1954, he established Shan Luen Motion Picture Company with Pak Yin and Ng Wui, and went on to appear in his son Chor Yuen’s classic work The Great Devotion (1960). In the 1960s, he joined Chor Yuen and Nam Hung’s Rose Motion Picture, which made Black Rose (1965) and Spy with My Face (1966). Cheung began appearing in television dramas on TVB from 1976. He retired in 1982.