Tony Leung Chiu-wai (born 27 June 1962 in Hong Kong), whose family roots lie in Taishan, Guangdong, is an actor and singer regarded as one of the most decorated male actors in Chinese-language cinema. Raised in a poor household after his parents separated, he was brought up by his mother and worked as an electrical appliance salesman after leaving secondary school. In 1982, encouraged by his friend Stephen Chow, he applied for TVB's artist training class and was accepted into its 11th intake; he made his television debut that year in The Emissary and, after graduating, hosted the children's programme 430 Space Shuttle. In 1984 he played Wai Siu-bo in the TVB series The Duke of Mount Deer, which made him a star, and became one of TVB's 'Five Tiger Generals' alongside Andy Lau, Felix Wong, Michael Miu and Kent Tong. His 1986 film Love Unto Wastes brought him a Best Actor nomination at the 6th Hong Kong Film Awards, and in 1987 he won Best Supporting Actor for People's Hero, repeating the feat in 1989 for My Heart Is That Eternal Rose. That year he also appeared in Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and brought him international attention. After finishing the TVB series Ode to Gallantry in 1989 he left television, and his 1990 collaboration with Wong Kar-wai on Days of Being Wild began a long partnership that included Ashes of Time (1994), Chungking Express (1994), Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love (2000) and 2046 (2004); he also appeared in John Woo's Hard Boiled (1992) and Tran Anh Hung's Cyclo (1995). In 1995 he won his first Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor for Chungking Express and also the 31st Golden Horse Award for Best Actor; in 1998 he won his second Hong Kong Film Award for Happy Together, in 2003 the Golden Horse Award for Infernal Affairs, and in 2007 a third Golden Horse Award for Lust, Caution. In 2000 he won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for In the Mood for Love, the first Hong Kong actor to do so, and in 2004 he took a fourth Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor for 2046. His other films include Hero (2002), the Infernal Affairs trilogy (2002-2003), which earned him another Best Actor award, and The Grandmaster (2013); he appeared in Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (2007), which won the Golden Lion at Venice. In 2023 he won Best Actor at the 36th Golden Rooster Awards for Hidden Blade, becoming the first actor to have won the Hong Kong Film Awards, Golden Horse Awards and Golden Rooster Awards for Best Actor. In 2024 he won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor a sixth time for The Goldfinger, breaking his own record; he has won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor six times and the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor three times. In 2023 he received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 80th Venice Film Festival, the first Chinese actor to be so honoured, and in December that year he received an honorary doctorate from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He married the actress Carina Lau in Bhutan on 21 July 2008.
Tony Leung is known for his subtle, restrained performances; his expressive eyes and understated emotion have influenced a generation of Hong Kong and Asian actors. His long partnership with Wong Kar-wai helped bring Hong Kong art-house cinema to the world stage, and his awards at Cannes and Venice widened international attention to Chinese-language film. Winning the Golden Rooster added to this, making him the first actor to hold all three major Chinese-language Best Actor awards. His career spans art-house, crime, action and period films, showing the range of a Hong Kong actor across genres.
Achievements
- 1995 · Won his first Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor for Chungking Express and also the 31st Golden Horse Award for Best Actor.
- 2000 · Won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for In the Mood for Love, the first Hong Kong actor to do so.
- 2023 · Received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 80th Venice Film Festival, the first Chinese actor to be so honoured.