Chen Sisi, born Chen Limei in Shanghai to a family from Ningbo, Zhejiang, later moved to Hong Kong. She joined Great Wall Movie Enterprises as a contract actress in 1954 and made her screen debut in Ming Phoon (1957) under director Cheng Bugao, rising to fame with The Brigands (1957) and becoming Great Wall's leading actress; with Hsia Moon and Shek Hwei she was known as one of the 'Three Princesses of Great Wall'. During her time there she appeared in about thirty films, including Miss Fragrance (1958), The Nature of Spring (1958), co-directed by Cheng Bugao and Lin Huan (the writer Jin Yong), Girl on the Front Page (1960), The Lady Racketeer (1961), Three Charming Smiles (1964), The Gold Diggers (1965), The Jade Bow (1966) and Ying Ku (1967). Her endearing Qiu Xiang in Three Charming Smiles proved so popular that the film was repeatedly released on the mainland, and she gave a vivid performance as the passionate Li Shengnan in The Jade Bow. Leaving Great Wall in 1968, she joined Eng Kin Film Company and made six films there before pausing her career. She joined Commercial Television in 1976 for the series The Legend of the Condor Heroes, and returned to the screen in The Warrant of Assassination (1980), retiring for good after a cameo in Great Wall's Shanghai Adventure (1985). She married the Feng Huang star Gao Yuan in 1961 and divorced in 1970; her second husband was the cinematographer Jiang Shi, and the couple settled in Shanghai. After a medical check-up in 2006 she was found to have advanced pancreatic cancer, her condition worsened in September 2007, and she died in Shanghai on 7 October 2007, aged 69.
Chen Sisi's Qiu Xiang made her a household name on the mainland and carried Great Wall's graceful Mandarin-film image to Chinese audiences far beyond Hong Kong; moving between the Eng Kin studio, television and later screen roles, she became one of the defining actresses of the golden age of Hong Kong Mandarin cinema.
Achievements
- 1957 · Debuted in Ming Phoon and became a star with The Brigands, forming the 'Three Princesses of Great Wall'
- 1964 · Starred as Qiu Xiang in Three Charming Smiles, which was repeatedly released on the mainland
- 1976 · Joined Commercial Television to play Bao Xiruo in the series The Legend of the Condor Heroes