Maggie Cheung Man-yuk was born in Hong Kong on 20 September 1964 with family roots in Shanghai, and moved to England at eight, attending school in Kent before returning to the city as a model. In 1983 she was first runner-up and Miss Photogenic at the Miss Hong Kong pageant and joined Television Broadcasts, making her television and film debuts in 1984 in the series The Rough Ride and the films Prince Charming and Behind the Yellow Line; those dramas made her a rising star. Her role in Jackie Chan's Police Story (1985), in which she performed her own stunts, brought wide attention, and she appeared in the hit romance Story of Rose in 1986. Her performance in Wong Kar-wai's As Tears Go By (1988) earned her a first Best Actress nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards, and in the same year she starred opposite Cherie Chung in Last Romance. She won that prize in 1990 for A Fishy Story and went on to take it five times, later for Centre Stage, Comrades: Almost a Love Story, The Soong Sisters and In the Mood for Love. In 1992 her portrayal of the silent-era star Ruan Lingyu in Centre Stage won her the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 42nd Berlin Film Festival as well as the Golden Horse Award and the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress, making her the first Chinese actress to take the top acting prize at a major European festival. She has also won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actress four times, for Full Moon in New York (1989), Centre Stage (1992), Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1997) and In the Mood for Love (2000). In 2004 she won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for the French film Clean, becoming the first Chinese actress to take the top acting prize at both Berlin and Cannes. Her other films include Red Dust (1990), Dragon Inn (1992), Green Snake (1993) and Ashes of Time (1994), spanning art-house, martial-arts and comedy. She has fronted international fashion brands and served on the jury of the Berlin Film Festival. In 2014 she made a foray into singing at a music festival in Shanghai, retreating from the public eye for a time after criticism of her voice, and she has continued to work intermittently in fashion and music. In 1996 she starred in Olivier Assayas's Irma Vep, playing a version of herself; the two married in December 1998 and divorced in 2002, and Assayas directed the film Clean that won her the Cannes prize in 2004. She has served on the juries of the Berlin (1997), Venice (1999), Cannes (2007) and Marrakech (2010) film festivals.
Maggie Cheung rose from a Miss Hong Kong contestant to win the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress five times, and she triumphed at both Berlin and Cannes, becoming the first Chinese actress to take the top acting prize at both European festivals. Her performances in Centre Stage, Comrades: Almost a Love Story and In the Mood for Love became landmarks of Hong Kong cinema. Working across both art-house and commercial films, she raised the international visibility of Chinese actresses. Her career also mirrors the golden age of Hong Kong film from the 1980s to the 2000s.
Achievements
- 1990 · She won her first Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress at the 9th ceremony for A Fishy Story.
- 1992 · She took the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 42nd Berlin Film Festival for Centre Stage, the first Chinese actress to do so.
- 2004 · She won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for the French film Clean.