Mr Ng Cho Fan

1911-1993

Actor

Actor Ng Cho Fan, also known as Ng Kui Cheung, was discovered by United Photoplay’s man-in-charge, Lo Ming Yau, while performing at a charity show at St Paul’s Secondary School, his alma mater. He made his debut as the male lead in Gunshot at Midnight (1932), but shot to fame with the anti-Japanese film Lifeline (1935); another anti-Japanese film, Song of Life (1937), won him the title “the Movie King of South China”. Both on-screen and off, Ng was social-minded and passionate about volunteering his services. He was one of the initiators of a campaign to “clean up” the Cantonese film industry in 1949, a move that led to the birth of the South China Film Industry Workers Union that same year. In 1952, he founded Union Film Enterprise with 20 likeminded filmmakers and actors, including Lee Tit, Ng Wui, Cheung Ying, Pak Yin, and Wong Man Lei. The goal was to make serious movies that offered a mirror of the realities of life in Hong Kong. Ng’s role in the 1953 production Spring won him the First Class Individual Achievement Award from the Cultural Ministry of the People’s Republic of China. Together with Lee Sun Fung, he founded Hwa Lien Film Company, which made classics It Was a Cold Winter Night (1955) and The Orphan (1960). Ng retired in the 1970s, having starred in more than 200 films. In 1993, he was awarded the Special Commemoration Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards.