Mr Cheung Ying

1919-1984

Actor

Born Cheung Yik Sang, actor and director Cheung Ying made his acting debut in The Glowing Pearl in 1937 and rose to fame in 1940 with Poor Souls. He followed this with Hong Kong-made classics Everlasting Regret (1948), Dawn Must Come (1950) and The Prodigal Son (1952). In a career that spanned more than four decades and 300 films, Cheung was known as “the Actor with a Thousand Faces”, though he is best remembered for portraying cowardly characters. In 1952, he co-founded Union Film Enterprise with other Cantonese film actors and filmmakers, and appeared in the studio’s works such as Family (1953), A Son Is Born (1953) and In the Face of Demolition (1953). He established two more studios, namely Overseas Chinese Films (with Tse Yik Chi) and Hoover Film Company. The mid-1950s saw Cheung going into directing: A Peaceful Family Will Prosper (1956) was followed by 14 titles that included Driver No. 7 (1958), The Night the Spirit Returns (1962) and the two-part Story of the Sword and the Sabre (1963). He became an actor at TVB in 1969 and later joined RTV; Reincarnated and Fatherland were among his best-known TV dramas. In 1984, Cheung died in Canada while filming Love Me Love My Dad, which was released in 1988.