Betty Loh Ti (1937–1968), born Xi Chongyi in Shanghai on 24 July 1937 to a Pudong family, was the younger sister of actor Kelly Lai Chen and the sixth child at home, hence her childhood nickname 'Sixth Brother'. Her parents died early and she was raised by her grandmother; her grandfather Koo Tsuk-hin ran the Tianchan Grand Theatre in Shanghai, which fed her love of acting. She moved to Hong Kong with her grandmother in 1949 and attended an English school before joining Great Wall Film Production as a contract player in 1953, taking the stage name Loh Ti, a pun on her nickname, and making her debut in a costume drama that year. In 1958, feeling her prospects at Great Wall were limited, she moved to Shaw Brothers and rose to fame with The Enchanting Shadow (1960), earning the title 'classical beauty', with the film selected for competition at the 13th Cannes Film Festival. In 1963 she won Best Actress at the 2nd Golden Horse Awards for The Love Eterne; other notable films of the period included Lovers' Rock (1960) and Sons and Daughters of the Earth (1965). After her Shaw contract ended in 1964 she joined MP & GI, later restructured as Cathay, appearing in a string of films through 1968. In 1967 she formed the Golden Eagle company with Kelly Lai Chen and Yuen Chau-fung, making martial-arts pictures released by Cathay. She married actor Chen Hou in 1962 and divorced five years later, and died in late 1968 after taking an overdose of sleeping pills, aged 31.
Active in Hong Kong's Mandarin cinema of the 1950s and 1960s, Betty Loh Ti's refined classical looks and restrained acting made her a key figure of Cathay's and Shaw's costume dramas, while The Enchanting Shadow took her to an international festival; her early death became a poignant note in the legend of her generation of stars.
Achievements
- 1953 · Joined Great Wall Film Production as a contract player, debuting in a costume drama
- 1960 · Moved to Shaw Brothers and rose to fame with The Enchanting Shadow, earning the title 'classical beauty', with the film selected for competition at Cannes
- 1963 · Won Best Actress at the 2nd Golden Horse Awards for The Love Eterne