Henry Fong Ping was born in Hong Kong on 24 September 1951, his family originating in Puning, Guangdong, in the Chaoshan region. He attended Pui Kiu Middle School and in 1968 entered the acting class jointly run by the Great Wall, Feng Huang and Sun Luen studios, appearing in The Three Musketeers (1969) before joining Great Wall as a contract player. He debuted in Petrel (1970) and took his first male lead in Heavenly Encounter the same year, becoming one of Great Wall's refined young leads. He appeared opposite his future wife Paw Hee-ching in Three Seventeen-Year-Olds (1972) and again in Romance on the Bus (1978), Great Wall's first Cantonese film, as the lead Chan Yi; in the 1970s he also toured Southeast Asia with the three studios' Silver Star troupe. While shooting The Bride with White Hair (1980), filmed on location in Huangshan, he and Paw fell in love and married in 1982, despite her father Paw Fong's objections; they have a daughter. After Great Wall closed he moved behind the camera, serving as assistant director on The Shaolin Kids (1984) and, after starring in The Laoshan Ghost Lovers (1984), concentrating on production; he made his directing debut with The Deserter (1990), followed by a second feature in 1995. In 1987 he founded the Kam Choi production company and worked chiefly as a producer: Three Women (a.k.a. Full Moon in New York, directed by Stanley Kwan) won Best Feature at the 26th Golden Horse Awards, and he later produced films including Lost in Time (2003), One Nite in Mongkok (2004), Mr. Cinema (2007), Overheard (2009), Shinjuku Incident (2009), Triple Tap (2010), The Great Magician (2011) and Macau Is a City (2019), long collaborating with directors such as Derek Yee and James Yuen. Fong often plays refined characters and has appeared in more than fifty films, including a property developer in a 1992 comedy and a triad boss in Infernal Affairs II (2003). His father-in-law is the actor Paw Fong and his brother-in-law the cinematographer Peter Pau; his wife Paw Hee-ching won Best Actress at the 28th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2009 for The Way We Are. He joined the South China Film Workers' Union in his early years, served on its council from 1984 and has been its honorary adviser since 2004.
Henry Fong represents one path taken by former Mandarin-cinema leading men who moved behind the camera; producing the Golden Horse Best Feature winner 'Three Women' shows his ability to shift from performer to producer. His marriage to Paw Hee-ching also links him to the Paw family of filmmakers.
Achievements
- 1968 · Joined Great Wall Movie Enterprises
- 1970 · Debuted in 'Petrel'
- 1978 · Starred in 'Romance on the Bus'
- 1989 · Produced 'Three Women', which won Best Feature at the 26th Golden Horse Awards
- 1982 · Married actress Paw Hee-ching