Lam Suet, whose real name is Lam Chit, was born in Tianjin and moved to Hong Kong with his family in 1978. In 1986, introduced by Lam Ching-ying, he entered the film industry as a production assistant, working in various grassroots backstage jobs; that same year he met the director Johnnie To, and from the late 1980s he occasionally appeared on screen in minor roles, taking barely speaking parts in the early 1990s in films such as The Story of Ricky (1992). From the late 1990s he was a regular presence in films produced by Milkyway Image, including A Longest Nite (1998), Expect the Unexpected (1998) and Hero Never Dies (1998). He then played the bullying Macau police officer Ah Kau in Johnnie To's Where a Good Man Goes (1999), his first substantial supporting role, oppressing the male lead. He continued in To's films, playing Ah Fat, one of the five bodyguards and the firearms expert in The Mission (1999), a performance that brought him recognition and several Best Supporting Actor nominations, including one at the 37th Golden Horse Awards, and established his image of the overweight, down-at-heel middle-aged man as a character actor. Besides important parts in To's Fulltime Killer (2001), Running Out of Time 2 (2001), PTU (2003), Election (2005), Election 2 (2006) and Exiled (2006), he gave substantial performances for other directors such as Jingle Ma's Goodbye Mr. Cool (2001), Derek Yee's One Nite in Mongkok (2004) and Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle (2004), and widened his comic range in films such as Wu Yen (2001). Fluent in Mandarin, from 2011 he has also worked in mainland Chinese films while continuing in Hong Kong cinema, with notable roles in Drug War (2013), Nessun Dorma (2014), Trivisa (2016) and A Home with a View (2019).
Rising from a production assistant, Lam became one of Milkyway Image's regular supporting actors in the late 1990s. His Ah Fat in The Mission earned Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Awards supporting-actor nominations and he won a Golden Bauhinia Award for PTU, defining a familiar small-man figure in Hong Kong gangster and crime films.
Achievements
- 1986 · Entered the film industry through an introduction by Lam Ching-ying, starting as a production assistant.
- 1999 · Was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 37th Golden Horse Awards for playing Ah Fat in The Mission.
- 2004 · Won Best Supporting Actor at the 9th Golden Bauhinia Awards for PTU.