Anthony Wong Chau-sang was born on 2 September 1961, the son of a Hong Kong Chinese mother of Taishanese descent, Wong Juen-yee, and an English father, Frederick William Perry, who served with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and later as a colonial officer. His father left the family when Wong was four, and he grew up in poverty with his mother and grandmother, working as an office assistant, a car-repair apprentice and a decorator. He joined ATV's acting course in 1984 and made his film debut in City of Life (1985), then studied at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, becoming one of its first graduates, and worked for TVB on serials such as Blood of Good and Evil. In 1993 he took Best Supporting Actor at the 30th Golden Horse Awards for the film Xiang Fei. In 1994 he won Best Actor at the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards for his portrayal of a serial killer in The Untold Story, his first Best Actor prize. In 1999 he won his second Best Actor award at the Hong Kong Film Awards for Beast Cops; in 2003 he took Best Supporting Actor at both the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards and the 40th Golden Horse Awards for Infernal Affairs; and in 2005 he won another Golden Horse Best Supporting Actor award for Initial D. Also active on stage, he won Best Actor (Tragedy/Drama) at the 10th Hong Kong Drama Awards for Mantis Catching Cicada in 2001, and in 2015 he won Best Actor at the TVB Anniversary Awards for the drama Lord of Shanghai. In 2019 he won his third Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor for playing a paralysed middle-aged man in Still Human.
Across three Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor, Anthony Wong showed that genre films and marginal characters could reach the highest level of performance. Moving between commercial cinema, art films and the stage, he widened what Hong Kong audiences expect of an actor.
Achievements
- 1994 · Won Best Actor at the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards for The Untold Story
- 1999 · Won his second Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor with Beast Cops
- 2019 · Won his third Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor with Still Human