A versatile actor known for his charismatic on screen presence and mastery of genres from gangster movies to romantic epics to knockabout comedies, Chow Yun-fat has been one of Hong Kong’s best loved silver screen stars for four decades.

Born in a remote farming community on Lamma island and raised in a home without electricity, as a child he worked in the fields and sold homemade food in the street. After leaving school aged 17 and working as everything from a postal worker to a taxi driver, his career began in the mid-1970s when he was accepted as a trainee by Hong Kong TV station TVB. He starred in a series of TV shows, making his name with his performance in period gangster drama The Bund, before getting his big movie breakthrough in A Better Tomorrow (1986), directed by Hong Kong action movie legend John Woo, who went on to cast him in five other movies, including The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992). Among Chow’s other best known films are Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and God of Gamblers (1989), while his Hollywood outings have included Anna and the King (1999) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007). Over the years, he has won best actor three times at the Hong Kong Film Awards and twice at the Golden Horse Awards. Known for the modesty of his lifestyle, he has pledged to give away the majority of his wealth to good causes.