Tian Qing (17 March 1935 – 2 June 1993), born Tian Chunsheng, was a Hong Kong actor in both Mandarin- and Cantonese-language films. Born in Shanghai to a family from Henan, he came to Hong Kong with his parents in 1949 and studied part-time at a church-run secondary school, the Sam Yuk Middle School; after graduating he did religious work before switching to film. He entered the International Film Distribution Company, the forerunner of Motion Picture & General Investment (MP & GI), as an actor, in the same intake as Kelly Lai Chen, Kitty Ting Hao and So Fung, making his debut in Green Valley (1956). Neat-featured, he often played young intellectuals and romantic leads; in his Mandarin period he took the leading role in the 1960 romance Chun Chao and had substantial parts in major studio productions of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Because he spoke fluent Cantonese, he was made the studio's leading man for Cantonese films when MP & GI developed its Cantonese unit in 1964, appearing in titles such as Old Love and New (1964) and Zi Zuo Duo Qing (1966) and becoming a familiar face of the unit; after studio chief Loke Wan Tho and his wife died in a plane crash in Taiwan on 20 June 1964 the company was reorganised and the Cantonese unit closed, so he returned to character roles in Mandarin pictures. He joined Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Ltd in 1970 and from the 1980s worked freelance in Hong Kong and Taiwan, appearing in supporting parts, including comic and villainous ones, in films such as The First Number (1981) and Shanghai Blues (1984). He died in Hong Kong on 2 June 1993, aged 58, having appeared in more than a hundred films over some thirty years and moved from Mandarin character actor to Cantonese leading man and back to supporting parts across several phases of the studio era.
Tian Qing's move from Mandarin character actor to Cantonese leading man reflects MP & GI's early-1960s push into Cantonese films; after the Loke Wan Tho crash dissolved the unit he returned to supporting roles, working for decades across Hong Kong and Taiwan and becoming a rare character actor who crossed both language sections of the studio era.
Achievements
- 1956 · Made his screen debut in Green Valley
- 1960 · Took the leading role in the 1960 Mandarin film Chun Chao
- 1964 · Was made the leading man of MP & GI's Cantonese film unit