Mr Woo Fung

1932-

Actor

Born Wu Kai Sau, Woo Fung joined Tai Seng Film Company as a contract actor in 1953. He shot to stardom playing the protagonist in his first film, Men’s Hearts (1953). While at Tai Seng, he co-starred with Fong Yim Fun in a number of melodramas, including Grief-Stricken for My Husband (1954) and Life and Death Together (1956). Meanwhile he proved his comedic talent through collaborations with Patrick Tse Yin in The Quarrelsome Couple (1959) and My Intimate Partner (1960) among other works. Known as “The Prince” in Cantonese cinema of the 1960s, Woo is best remembered for portraying honest men in both comedic and tragic roles. The rise of Cantonese movie musicals in the mid-1960s saw him pairing up with actress Josephine Siao in numerous titles such as I Love A-Go-Go (1967) and The Fabulous Rendezvous (1968), earning him the moniker “the King of Dance”. In the 1970s, when Cantonese cinema took a downturn, he joined Shaw Brothers before moving on to television, where he has remained to this day. Woo has an impressive filmography of more than 300 films featuring numerous famous co-stars. Some of his more memorable works since the 1980s and 1990s are The Haunted Cop Shop (1987), Love Undercover 2: Love Mission (2003), Overheard 2 (2011) and TV show Three Amigos Bon Voyage (2013). In 2003, Woo was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Hong Kong Film Critics Association.