Parkman Wong Pak-man was born on 12 October 1953. As a teenager he entered the Hong Kong Sea School and went to sea at seventeen, before joining the sixth acting course of Television Broadcasts in 1977 alongside classmates such as Ray Lui, Idy Chan, Liu Wai-hung and Liu Nga-lai. Dismissed two years after graduating for appearing too rarely, he moved into film and started as an assistant director, later becoming a key member of Danny Lee's Man Nang production company, handling planning, direction and acting, and appearing in almost all of Lee's pictures, most memorably Long Arm of the Law (1984), Final Justice (1988) and The Killer (1989). In Long Arm of the Law he played a major villain and was reported to have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 21st Golden Horse Awards, but a week before the ceremony the organisers announced that the nomination had been a mistake and that the nominee was in fact his co-star Teddy Robin. Between 1988 and 1991 Wong directed three features — Final Justice, which starred Stephen Chow in his screen debut, Walking on the Road Together (1990) and a 1991 crime film — but was diagnosed with lymphoma while shooting the last and, on medical advice, gave up directing to become head of production at Man Nang. He emigrated to Canada with his family in the mid-1990s and ran a small business, returning to Hong Kong in the 2000s, and in 2012 rejoined Television Broadcasts as a contract artiste, becoming a regular in producer Wong Sum-wai's dramas and specialising in villainous roles, notably the drug lord in Highs and Lows (2012).
A mainstay of Danny Lee's Man Nang company, Parkman Wong played police officers and villains on screen and directed crime films behind it, his career mirroring the many-hats working life of 1980s and 90s Hong Kong cinema. After emigrating to Canada and returning, he carried his menacing presence into television.
Achievements
- 1977 · Joined the sixth acting course of Television Broadcasts Limited.
- 1988 · Directed his first feature film, Final Justice.
- 2012 · Rejoined Television Broadcasts and later appeared in dramas including Highs and Lows.