Fu Che, born Fu Guoliang on 24 May 1929 in Shenyang into a family from Yuyao in Zhejiang (now part of Ningbo), grew up in Qingpu, Shanghai, and became a Hong Kong civil engineer, actor and businessman. He studied civil engineering at St. John's University in Shanghai, was among China's early home-trained civil engineers, excelled in his studies and, having skipped a year, graduated at twenty. He moved to Hong Kong with his family in 1949 and first worked as a civil engineer; in 1952 he left engineering for the movies, joining Great Wall Film Production and appearing as a male lead in fifty-eight films, making him one of the studio's most popular stars. Versatile across drama, martial arts, realist and comic roles, he was especially praised for comedy. He was frequently paired with Shek Hwei, forming one of Great Wall's best-known screen couples, and the two later married; Shek Hwei was the studio's leading lady and, with Hsia Moon and Chen Sisi, was known as one of the 'Three Princesses of Great Wall'. He appeared with Shek Hwei in Honeymoon, Little Dancing Girl and The Perfect Match, with Hsia Moon in The Sun Rises, Beauty and the Bachelor and Sweet as Honey, with Chen Sisi in The Magic Touch and Fate in the Sea of Clouds, and with Zhu Hong in First Love. In 1978 he left acting for business. He and Shek Hwei had children including the actress Fiona Fu, and the family settled in Vancouver, Canada, in later life. Tall and understated on screen, he was known as an easy comic lead and remained active at Great Wall and Feng Huang for some thirty years, one of the representative male stars of Hong Kong's Mandarin cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also a committee member of a leftist organisation opposed to colonial persecution and was among those detained during the 1967 disturbances.
After joining Great Wall in 1952, Fu Che and Shek Hwei became one of the most bankable screen couples of 1950s and 1960s Mandarin cinema through films such as Honeymoon; combining the roles of engineer and actor, he was an important member of a studio that sustained the Mandarin film market during the Cold War.
Achievements
- 1952 · Joined Great Wall Film Production and made his screen debut opposite Shek Hwei in Honeymoon, going on to become one of the studio's best-known screen couples
- 1952–1978 · Appeared in fifty-eight films for Great Wall and Feng Huang, leading hit pictures opposite Hsia Moon and Chen Sisi
- 1978 · Left acting for business after fifty-eight films