Peter Chen Ho (1 July 1929 – 16 April 1970), born Chen Shanghou in Shanghai and educated at a Shanghai school, came to Hong Kong with his family in 1950 and first worked in a trading firm. Hired by Shaw & Sons in 1953 but never signing a contract, he was recommended by the director Tu Guangqi to join the Hsin Hwa Motion Picture Company and made his screen debut in The Dawn of China's Revolution (1953); he took his first leading role in Holiday Express (1957). In 1957 he joined Motion Picture and General Investment Co. Ltd — later restructured as Cathay Organisation (HK) — and shot to fame with Mambo Girl (1957). Hailed as a 'Master of Comedy', he worked for MP & GI, Shaw Brothers and Cathay on such films as The Battle of Love and Happy Union (both 1957), Calendar Girl (1959), Les Belles (1961), Love Parade (1963) and The Lark (1965), appearing in around eighty films in all. A capable singer and dancer, he broke through in a musical landscape dominated by actresses, projecting an easy, stylish urban masculinity. While filming a production directed by Shima Koji he fell ill and was diagnosed with cancer; the film was completed by Kuei Chih-hung as Love Song over the Sea (1970). After a first, unsuccessful marriage, he married the actress Betty Loh Ti in 1962; they divorced in 1967. He died of colon cancer in the United States on 16 April 1970, aged forty.
Chen Ho was a leading figure of 1950s and 1960s Mandarin musical comedy, breaking through with comic timing and dance skill in an industry dominated by actresses. Films such as Mambo Girl and Calendar Girl brought Western song-and-dance elements into Hong Kong Mandarin cinema and created a relaxed, fashionable image of the modern urban man, while his name became a box-office draw in the rivalry between MP & GI and Shaw Brothers.
Achievements
- 1953 · Made his screen debut in The Dawn of China's Revolution.
- 1957 · Shot to fame with Mambo Girl and joined MP & GI.
- 1961 · Starred in the Shaw Brothers musical Les Belles.