Mr Tang Kei Chen

1921-1991

Actor

Actor Tang Kei Chen was a radio broadcaster in the 1940s. He was well loved for his humour and ability to impersonate voices, which won him the moniker “King of Comedy”. Tang came to Hong Kong in 1950 and hosted Tang Kei Chen’s Comedy Hour on Radio Rediffusion. He appeared in comedies such as A Comet of Laughter Lands on Earth (1952) and The Feuds between Fong Tong-geng and Chan Mung-kat (1957). The most famous was the “Two Fools” series in which he played a fool alongside a smart-aleck played by Sun Ma Si Tsang. Their interaction was seamless and featured lots of witty improvisation. In total, Tang acted in more than 150 films, doubling as the scriptwriter in some of the earlier ones such as A Star of Mischief Is Born (1951), Daddy and Sonny (1951) and The Scatterbrain (1951). Tang emigrated to Canada in 1975, but he returned to Hong Kong from time to time for guest appearances in movies such as All the Wrong Clues (1981) and Behind the Yellow Line (1984).