James Yi Lui (1939–1999), born Yee Pak-lun, was a Hong Kong comedy actor, screenwriter and director, the only son of Yi Chau-sui, a comedy star of Cantonese-language cinema in the 1930s to 1950s, and an uncle of the actor Kwong Wa. Raised on Pok Fu Lam Road and educated at Morrison Hill Government Primary School and King's College, he signed with Shaw Brothers as a child actor in 1953 while in Form Three and first appeared on screen in 1954, initially only as an extra before being noticed by Cho Tat-wah and going on to play small figures in many Cantonese pictures. In 1973 he wrote and starred in a comedy that gave him his first leading role, and became a household name with a follow-up he also wrote; in 1974 he co-founded a production company with Chan Koon-tai and in 1978 set up his own, at his peak appearing in more than twenty films a year. His self-directed films include three comedies released between 1978 and 1989, the last being his final screen work, and he also wrote screenplays for other productions. Active on television, he appeared in an ATV series and in a 1987 TVB family serial, shifting his focus towards television and other companies as Cantonese cinema declined in the 1980s. He won the Wah Kiu Yat Po top-ten cinema stars Golden Globe award six times between 1973 and 1978, and died on 16 February 1999. Continuing his father's comic line, he excelled at ordinary, streetwise characters, and his supple comic timing and approachable image let him sustain a career after the decline of Cantonese-language cinema.
Taking up his father Yi Chau-sui's comic line, Yi became a transitional comedy star between Cantonese and Mandarin cinema in the 1970s; his prolific self-written, self-directed street comedies also carried television sitcom performance back into film, making him one of the defining popular-comedy faces of the era.
Achievements
- 1953 · Signed with Shaw Brothers and entered the industry as a child actor
- 1973 · Wrote and starred in a comedy that gave him his first leading role
- 1978 · Directed and starred in his own comedy
- 1973–1978 · Won the Wah Kiu Yat Po top-ten cinema stars award six times