Roy Chiao Hung was born on 16 March 1927 in Shanghai to a family from Linfen, Shanxi, and died of a heart attack in Seattle on 16 April 1999, aged 72; he was nicknamed the Lion. Educated in Chongqing and Shanghai, he went to Taiwan during the Korean War, working as a radio announcer and a translator for the US military. In 1955 he travelled to Japan and met the actress Bai Guang, who was preparing to return to Hong Kong as an independent producer; he came with her and made his screen debut in her Guoguang production Fresh Peony (1956). When Bai retired in 1957 she recommended him to Motion Picture and General Investment, later Cathay, where his build won him leading parts in films such as Youth (1959), Air Hostess (1959) and Gangsters (1962), and his command of English, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese and Amoy earned him a role in the Rank production Ferry to Hong Kong (1959). Leaving Cathay in 1970, he turned to character parts in Tang Shu Shuen's The Arch (1970), John Woo's Follow the Star (1978) and King Hu's A Touch of Zen (1970), The Fate of Lee Khan (1973) and The Valiant Ones (1975). He also appeared in Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon (1973) and the Hollywood picture Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) as the gangster Lao Che. A devout Christian, he founded the artists' fellowship The Artists' Home in 1985, and in 1994 moved to Seattle with his wife to devote himself to evangelism. For his portrait of a grandfather with dementia in Ann Hui's Summer Snow he won the Best Actor prizes at the 32nd Golden Horse Awards, the 15th Hong Kong Film Awards and the first Golden Bauhinia Awards, at the age of seventy; his last film was the evangelical picture City of Angels (1999).
Chiao remains one of the oldest Best Actor winners in Hong Kong Film Awards history, taking the prize at seventy for Summer Snow, where his stubborn yet fragile grandfather anchors the film's emotional core. Fluent in several languages, he was among the few Chinese actors of his generation to move between Hong Kong and Hollywood productions.
Achievements
- 1956 · Came to Hong Kong with the actress Bai Guang and made his screen debut in Fresh Peony
- 1973 · Appeared in Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon
- 1996 · Won Best Actor at the 15th Hong Kong Film Awards for Summer Snow