Patrick Tse Yin (1936–2026), originally named Tse Ka-yuk, was born in Hong Kong on 9 August 1936, with ancestral roots in Panyu, Guangdong, and was the fourth of eight siblings. He sat the actor-training course of Lan Kwong Film Company in 1953 but was rejected, yet caught the eye of the producer Poon Bing-kuen, joined Poon's Dihua Film Company and made his lead debut in a 1954 film; in 1955 he joined the newly formed Kong Ngee company. A leading man in Cantonese movies through the 1950s and 1960s, he starred in films such as the 1967 classic The Story of a Discharged Prisoner; his dashing looks made him an idol of his generation, he invested in film production, and he formed the 'Silver Band' with actors including Chang Chung, Woo Fung and Kenneth Tsang. Because he was fourth among his siblings and played Law Si-hoi in the serial The Shell Game (1980), he became known as 'Fourth Brother'. In the 1980s he moved to television, drifted away from the screen in the 1990s and later returned, and his turn as the villain Hung Hung in Shaolin Soccer (2001) became a favourite. In 2019 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards, and in 2021 he won his first Best Actor prize, from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, for Time. In 2022, at the age of 85, he won Best Actor at the 40th Hong Kong Film Awards for the same film, becoming the oldest Best Actor winner in the award's history. He was the father of actor Nicholas Tse and of Jennifer Tse. He died in Hong Kong of pneumonia on 16 July 2026, aged 89; his family carried out his wish for a low-key funeral, with cremation in Fanling that month.
From a 1950s Cantonese-movie lead to a 2020s Best Actor, Patrick Tse's near-70-year career spans the shifts of Hong Kong's film and television industry; his unhurried retired-killer turn in Time led the Hong Kong Film Awards to crown an actor in his eighties for the first time and renewed attention on older performers.
Achievements
- 1967 · Starred in Lung Kong's The Story of a Discharged Prisoner as an ex-convict rebuilding his life
- 2001 · Played the villain Hung Hung in Shaolin Soccer
- 2019 · Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards
- 2022 · Won Best Actor at the 40th Hong Kong Film Awards for Time, becoming the oldest Best Actor winner