Paul Chun Pui, born Chiang Cheung-nin in Beijing in 1945, was known as Yim Cheong in his child-actor days. His family came from Jiangsu; both his father, Yan Hua, and mother, Hung Wei, were film actors, and he moved with them from Shanghai to Hong Kong at the age of three, making his screen debut as a toddler in 1949. He went on to play child roles in films including 寸草心 (1953), Peach Blossom River (1956) and My Fair Lady (1957), and in 1958 took part in a charity children's play to raise funds for needy children. After graduating from Wah Yan College he was invited by Li Han-hsiang to Taiwan in 1964 and joined Li's Grand Motion Picture Company, taking the stage name Qin Pei and appearing in two 1966 adaptations of Chiung Yao novels, and he also took part in the American production The Sand Pebbles (1966). Returning to Hong Kong, he worked in both Mandarin and Cantonese cinema. In 1970 he joined Shaw Brothers, starring in Sunset Lovers (1971), taking leads in Love Auction (1971) and We Must Get Married (1972), and appearing in big productions such as The Water Margin (1972), The Fourteen Amazons (1972) and All Men Are Brothers (1975). After leaving Shaw Brothers he worked for various companies, including King Hu's Raining in the Mountain (1979), and with his brother David Chiang formed the Hong Kong Yuen Hang Film Company, producing The Owl (1981), directed by Chiang and written by his youngest brother Derek Yee, in which he also acted. He then entered television, working for Commercial Television, RTV, ATV and TVB. From the 1980s he appeared across genres, playing a collaborator in Hong Kong 1941 (1984), a stern prosecutor in Why Me? (1985) and a male opera female role in Peking Opera Blues (1986). He won Best Supporting Actor at the 6th and 13th Hong Kong Film Awards for The Lunatics (1986) and C'est la vie, mon cheri (1993), the former also earning him the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor, and he was later nominated for his work in Peking Opera Blues, A Simple Life (2012) and Book of Love (2016). In 2018 he appeared on stage alongside Carina Lau and Tse Kwan-ho. Both of his brothers became actors, as did his son Benji Chiang and daughter Lesley Chiang, making the family a celebrated acting dynasty.
Starting as a child actor, Paul Chun Pui has spanned Hong Kong and Taiwan, Mandarin and Cantonese cinema, and television for decades, his range covering drama, comedy and villainy. His performances in The Lunatics and C'est la vie, mon cheri won him Best Supporting Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards, cementing his reputation as a gold-standard character actor. He both witnessed and took part in Hong Kong cinema's shift from the Shaw Brothers studio era to the New Wave, and, with brothers David Chiang and Derek Yee and his own children, represents a celebrated acting family.
Achievements
- 1949 · Debuted on the big screen as a three-year-old child actor in two 1949 films.
- 1986 · Won Best Supporting Actor at both the 6th Hong Kong Film Awards and the 23rd Golden Horse Awards for The Lunatics.
- 1993 · Won Best Supporting Actor at the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards for C'est la vie, mon cheri.