Part 4 in my “TVB Acting Class History” series covers the 3rd year acting class – those who entered the class in 1973 and graduated in 1974 (keep in mind that during this time, the acting classes were still a 1 year program).
** Note 1: The artists’ names listed in BOLD are the ones who were actually active in the HK entertainment industry (as far as I know) and /or ones whom most audiences will probably be familiar with.
** Note 2: Under the “Summary & Thoughts” section, I’ve listed various tidbits as well as other descriptive info about some of the artists that I’ve highlighted in BOLD.
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TVB 藝員訓練班（第三期）- 1973 -74年
TVB’s Acting Class – 3rd year (1973-74)
周潤發 (Chow Yun Fat)、吳孟達 (Ng Man Tat)、任達華 (Simon Yam Tat Wah)、林嶺東 (Ringo Lam Ling Dong)、盧海鵬 (Lo Hoi Pang)、鄧英敏 (English Tang Ying Mun)、伍潤泉 (Thomas Ng Yun Chuen)、蕭健鏗 (Hsiao Kin Heng)、林文偉 (Lam Man Wai)
SUMMARY and THOUGHTS:
.— As I stated in my previous post (part 3), starting with the 3rd year class and moving forward, we will start to see a lot of the ‘big names’ in HK entertainment, most of whom still have a significant impact on the industry even today.
.—I’m sure I don’t need to explain who Chow Yun Fat is, correct? In all my years following HK entertainment, I have never encountered a single Hong Konger who wasn’t familiar with Chow Yun Fat – he’s definitely one of the biggest stars to come out of HK and for most of us, he is pretty much a ‘household name’. Therefore, I am not going to go into detail about him in this particular post. However, for those who are interested in learning more about Chow Yun Fat’s life and why he is one of the most respected celebrities on the planet, feel free to check out the Book Review I wrote awhile back ago: Now and Then II: Chow Yun Fat
.—Ng Man Tat (Tat Gor) should definitely be a familiar name to audiences, especially movie audiences (more on that piece later). Known as a ‘golden’ supporting actor, Tat Gor has never played a lead role in his life – he started off in TV as a supporting actor and even when he started doing movies, he continued in supporting roles, eventually making a name for himself and becoming one of the most successful and highest paid supporting actors in the Chinese-speaking regions of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China (he’s actually one of the few HK actors to achieve such success completely relying on supporting roles).
After Tat Gor graduated from Acting Class, he participated in numerous series in the 70s, but mostly had only minor roles. He started becoming familiar to audiences through his performance in the 1979 version of “Chor Lau Heung” (he played Chor Lau Heung’s good friend Wu Tiet Fa). In the 1980s, Tat Gor participated in many ancient series, though he also had quite a few memorable roles in modern series as well, mostly as a ‘stern’ father figure – for me, his most memorable ‘serious’ role from the early 80s was as ‘Yip Sir’ in the “Police Cadet” trilogy (in “Police Cadet ‘84”, he was Tony Leung’s mentor at the cadet training school and in “Police Cade ‘85”, he played Margie Tsang and Jamie Chik’s father – same role but focused more on his family life).
In 1989, Tat Gor collaborated with rising comedic star Stephen Chow (周星馳) on 2 major series (ancient series “The Final Combat” and also modern series “The Justice of Life”) and from that point forward, a comedic ‘dream team’ was born. In 1990, Tat Gor started to focus his career more on movies and with that, continued his ‘dream team’ collaboration with Stephen Chow, participating in almost every single one of Stephen’s movies. He received his first nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the HK Film Awards for his performance in the gambling-themed “All for the Winner” (賭聖) [the Stephen Chow spin-off of Chow Yun Fat’s “God of Gamblers” franchise]. He didn’t win that year, but the following year, he was nominated again in the same category for “A Moment of Romance” (天若有情) [the famous Andy Lau film] and finally took home the award (ironically, in a non-Stephen Chow collaboration). Tat Gor is no longer active in the HK film industry, as he shifted his career to Taiwan and the Mainland in the late 90s, participating mostly in TV series over there. He did reunite briefly with Stephen Chow in 2001 for the film “Shaolin Soccer” however 3 years later when Stephen started filming for “Kung Fu Hustle”, Tat Gor was noticeably absent from the movie (it was rumored that the two had fallen out of favor with each other and therefore ended their long-standing collaboration – supposedly, things are fine now, at least according to Tat Gor).
.—Simon Yam is one of those rare success stories whose decorated career is proof that an actor typecasted as a ‘sex symbol’ can still go on to become one of the most solid and respected actors in the entertainment industry. Prior to joining TVB, Simon worked as a model (not surprising, given his good looks, tall stature, and nearly perfect physique) – after entering the Acting Class and then graduating, he started participating in TV series and films almost simultaneously (though of course at that time, there was more focus placed on his TV career). With such a long career (over 30 years), Simon had the opportunity to play many different roles and is probably one of the few actors who actually had such a wide acting range. But it actually wasn’t like that all the time – in the early years of his career, he was pretty much typecast into either ‘sex symbol’ bad boy type roles or given the role of the villain, though there was the occaisonal ‘honest good guy’ role thrown in there from time to time. Simon had so many memorable performances when he was at TVB, it’s actually very difficult to pick a ‘favorite’ -- though if I had to choose, I would probably count his performances in “The New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung” (1984), “Police Cade ‘85” (1985), “The New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre” (1986), and his most representative work (at TVB) “War of the Dragon” (1989) amongst my favorites. In fact, I actually feel that his performance in “War of the Dragon” was so good, it was absolutely award-worthy (too bad there were no TV awards back then) – that series definitely secured Simon’s ‘lead actor’ status and proved that he definitely had acting skill. Ironically, it was also around that time that he left TVB and went to ATV – though technically, he was also continuing to focus more on his movie career as well, since it was also around that time (early 90s) that he really started participating in a lot of movies. And then, in the mid-90s, he pretty much left ATV to focus completely on his movie career (though still participating in a series or two here and there) – definitely a wise decision given how successful he eventually became in the movie industry (finally winning the HKFA Best Actor award in 2010 for his performance in “Echoes of the Rainbow.”)
Some interesting facts about Simon’s background – he actually comes from a family of police officers, as his dad was a Police Corporal (he died while on duty when Simon was just 14 years old) and his older brother was the former Deputy Commissioner of Police in HK. Of course, we all know that his wife is famous model Qi Qi and together, they have a daughter named Ella.
.—Ringo Lam is a famous movie director who was most active back in the 80s and 90s. After graduating from the Acting Class, he had a few minor roles in a few series, but then switched to doing behind the scenes work, first as an assistant editor, then as a choreographer. He participated in the production of a few TVB series in the late 70s. He then left TVB in 1978 and went to Commercial Television, but his career there was short-lived, since CTV went belly up not too long after that. Therefore, Ringo decided to immigrate to Canada and study film at York University. He returned to HK in the early 80s and that’s when his career really took off, as he started applying the skills he learned and became a director. The genre that he specialized in was action drama, though he did occasionally direct a comedy or two. I’m actually not too familiar with Ringo’s work, but I do know that he was most famous for the “On Fire” films [“City on Fire” (龍虎風雲), “Prison on Fire” (監獄風雲), and “School on Fire” (學校風雲)] back in the late 80s and had won an HKFA Best Director award for one of the films. Out of the 3 films, I’m only familiar with the first two, which starred Chow Yun Fat.
.—The best way to describe Lo Hoi Pang (Pang Gor) is ‘multi-talented comedic genius’. Even though he was naturally born with a ‘sour-looking’ face, that’s certainly not the image that audiences have of him all these years. As the mainstay of TVB’s long-running flagship variety show “Enjoy Yourself Tonight” (E.Y.T.), Pang Gor made audiences laugh day in and day out with his hilarious comedic routines (usually consisting of ad-libbed dialogue), funny and oftentimes irreverent jokes, and most famously, his great imitation skills. His cutting dialogue in the E.Y.T. skit “The Shrimp Family” as well as his habit of ad-libbing and speaking in rhyme on the show left a deep impression on audiences and to this day, that particular skit still goes down in history as one of the all time classics in HK TV history. Pang Gor was also known for his acting skills and throughout his career, he participated in numerous TV series, movies, as well stage productions. He most recently participated in the stage production of “Shrimp Crazy Family”, which was a reunion of sorts for the E.Y.T. and Shrimp Family cast. (For more information regarding the “Shrimp Crazy Family” stage production, feel free to check out this post: The Return of a Classic)
I remember growing up watching Pang Gor on many of TVB’s variety shows, especially the Anniversary Gala skits and I can tell you first hand that he is absolutely hilarious! He’s definitely the ‘master’ of imitation and was even one of the early artists to perform in drag -- honestly speaking, he puts those imitation wannabees (the current ‘3 gods’, whom I can’t stand, especially when they dress up in drag!!) absolutely to shame! He’s definitely one of the few ‘all –around entertainers’ out there who is able to excel in all disciplines – I can’t think of anyone else in the industry with his caliber of skill.
.—English Tang is another one of those artists whose face audiences will surely recognize, since he participated in so many series in the past few decades and is still active even now (though on the acting front, most of his roles have always been minor ones). English is actually best known for being a host, as that’s where his strength lies – he hosted a variety of shows back in the day, but his most famous ‘gig’ was hosting TVB’s long-running E.Y.T., which he had done from the late 70s until E.Y.T. ended in the 90s (of course, he didn’t host every single episode, but he did host a majority of them). His daughter is Shermon Tang (鄧上文), a former Miss HK contestant from 2005 (I think she won the Most Photogenic award that year, though I’m not sure if she actually made it into top 3 or not, since I pretty much stopped watching the Miss HK pageants in the late 90s) who eventually became an actress and participated in quite a few TVB series (mostly minor roles though).
.—Thomas Ng may not be a familiar name to most audiences, as he is a producer and so works behind the scenes, plus there is so little information about him out there nowadays. Actually, to be more specific, I should say that Thomas is a FORMER producer for TVB (and subsequently ATV) because to be honest, I’m not sure if he’s still producing anymore (again, there is very little information about him, so I’m not too sure what he is doing career-wise now). Back in the 80s, he produced quite a few popular series that most 80s fanatics will be familiar with – for example: “The Legend of Master So” (1982) starring Chow Yun Fat and Andy Lau, “The Fearless Duo” (1984) starring Michael Miu and Barbara Yung, “Siblings of Vice and Virtue” (1986) starring Eddie Cheung, Barbara Chan, Kenneth Tsang, “The Two Most Honorable Knights” (1988) starring Tony Leung and Hugo Ng, etc. The only other thing I found out about Thomas Ng is that he was a very close friend of Barbara Yung’s and during her funeral, he was one of the pallbearers along with the Tigers.
.—The remaining 2 artists listed I’m not familiar with at all, though if they were actually actors onscreen (even in ‘ke le fe’ roles), I would probably recognize them if I saw their pictures. If anyone is familiar with them, please let me know.
Stay tuned for post #5.
LL's Musings 小賢角落
Showing posts with label TVB Acting Class History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TVB Acting Class History. Show all posts
Monday, October 17, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
TVB Acting Classes: 2nd Year Artists List – Class of 1973 (Part 3 in a series)
Here is part 3, which covers the 2nd year acting class (for those who didn’t get a chance to read the first 2 parts, you can do so here: Part 1 & Part 2). The date range is 1972-73 (those who entered the class in 1972 and graduated in 1973). The reason why I did the dates this way is because depending on which source you read, some will refer to the classes by the year the artists entered the class while others will refer to the year they graduated. Therefore, to avoid confusion, I decided to list both.
** Note 1: The artists’ names listed in BOLD are the ones who were actually active in the HK entertainment industry (as far as I know) and /or ones whom most audiences will probably be familiar with.
** Note 2: Under the “Summary & Thoughts” section, I’ve listed various tidbits as well as other descriptive info about some of the artists that I’ve highlighted in BOLD.
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TVB 藝員訓練班（第二期）- 1972 -73年
TVB’s Acting Class – 2nd year (1972-73)
宋豪辉 (Song Hao Fai)、伍衛國 (Lawrence Ng Wai Kwok)、盧宛茵 (Angelina Lo Yuen Yan), 梁鴻華 (Leung Hung Wah)
SUMMARY & THOUGHTS:
.—First of all, I must say that I was surprised to see only 4 names for the class of 1973. I actually checked a few lists and did some additional research, but everything I found only had the same 4 names. However, none of the sources stated whether there were only 4 names because that year, there were only 4 people in the Acting Class (which is sort of hard to believe) or whether there were actually others in the class, but for some reason, only 4 are listed, perhaps because the others were not recorded down somehow (or perhaps were not worthy of mention?).
.—One theory for why only 4 names are mentioned is that this particular year’s acting class is considered ‘the calm before the storm’, as the artists to come out of the classes for the next 10 years following this one will be the ‘most well-known’ – they are also the ones responsible for ‘creating’ the Golden Era of HK entertainment.
.—Out of the 4 names listed, I actually only know 3 of them, so that’s where my focus will be for the purposes of this post. Though I’ve never heard of Song Hao Fai, I did look him up and basically all I know is that he is a director as well as a songwriter – that’s as far as my knowledge goes though.
.—Lawrence Ng Wai Kwok should be a familiar name to most of today’s audiences, as he had participated in a handful of TVB series these past few years, including “The Drive of Life” (2007), “The Silver Chamber of Sorrows” (2008), and “The Season of Fate” (2010). Of course, his roles in each of those series were only supporting, but actually, back in the day (in the 1970s at TVB as well as Commercial Television and in the 1980s at ATV), he played mostly first male lead roles – to the point that he was nicknamed ‘Ng Siu Sang’. He was actually one of the few artists who worked for all 4 major TV stations in HK (Commercial TV, Rediffusion TV, TVB, ATV) at different points in his career. Another ‘record’ that he set was for being one of the few artists who has returned to TVB the most times : he started off at TVB in the 70s, then went to Commercial Television in 1976 – unfortunately, Commercial TV closed down in 1978, so he went to Rediffusion Television in 1979, continuing there even when RTV became ATV in 1982 and staying with ATV into the 90s. In 1993, he returned to TVB and participated in a few series, but then left again, as he was in ‘half-retired’ mode and moved his career to Mainland. It wasn’t until 2007 that he returned to TVB for the 3rd time.
I personally have not watched majority of Lawrence’s series from the 70s, 80s, or 90s, so I can’t really comment on his acting. I did watch his performance in “The Drive of Life” though and felt that he was quite good. Apparently, he was quite popular back in the day, so those who are interested in knowing more may want to ask your parents, as I’m sure they probably know who he is.
.—Angelina Lo should also be a familiar name to most audiences, as she has been consistently active at TVB for the past 3 decades, participating in countless series. 80s audiences are probably most familiar with her breakthrough role as ‘Third Auntie’ in the classic series “The Seasons” (1988) – that role pretty much made her a household name in HK. That was actually the first series that I watched of Angelina’s and she definitely left quite an impression on me – that role was one that audiences pretty much ‘loved to hate’….she wasn’t a villain by any means – it’s just that her character was bossy, loud-mouthed, annoying, rude, and always seemed to ‘hurt’ people with her words (though sometimes not intentionally). She played numerous ‘mother’ roles after that throughout the rest of the 80s, 90s, and 00s, however in my opinion, none of her subsequent roles were able to top her ‘Third Auntie’ role. In the 90s, her best role (in my opinion) was in the sitcom “Family Squad” (1992) where she played the mother of Anita Lee, Lai Hoi Shan, and Joe Tay. In the ‘after 2000s’ era, her most memorable role (again, my opinion) is probably as Roger Kwok’s mother in “Square Pegs” and “Life Made Simple”.
.—Leung Hung Wah is one of those actors whose face I recognize, but never knew his name. He was most active in the 80s, where he participated in numerous series (especially ancient series), but almost all were small roles that couldn’t even be considered ‘supporting’. If I recall correctly, I believe the biggest role in his entire acting career was in “The Return of Luk Siu Fung” (1986) – but it was still a lesser supporting role compared to others in that series. There actually isn’t a whole lot of information about Leung Hung Wah out there, but the little I was able to find pretty much stated that later on in his career, he became a director focusing on horror movies – it didn’t sound like he was too successful, as many of his films – especially later in his career – basically flopped at the box office.
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Stay tuned for part 4….if most of the names in the first few parts did not sound familiar to you, the ones starting with the next post (Class of 1974) definitely will!
** Note 1: The artists’ names listed in BOLD are the ones who were actually active in the HK entertainment industry (as far as I know) and /or ones whom most audiences will probably be familiar with.
** Note 2: Under the “Summary & Thoughts” section, I’ve listed various tidbits as well as other descriptive info about some of the artists that I’ve highlighted in BOLD.
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TVB 藝員訓練班（第二期）- 1972 -73年
TVB’s Acting Class – 2nd year (1972-73)
宋豪辉 (Song Hao Fai)、伍衛國 (Lawrence Ng Wai Kwok)、盧宛茵 (Angelina Lo Yuen Yan), 梁鴻華 (Leung Hung Wah)
SUMMARY & THOUGHTS:
.—First of all, I must say that I was surprised to see only 4 names for the class of 1973. I actually checked a few lists and did some additional research, but everything I found only had the same 4 names. However, none of the sources stated whether there were only 4 names because that year, there were only 4 people in the Acting Class (which is sort of hard to believe) or whether there were actually others in the class, but for some reason, only 4 are listed, perhaps because the others were not recorded down somehow (or perhaps were not worthy of mention?).
.—One theory for why only 4 names are mentioned is that this particular year’s acting class is considered ‘the calm before the storm’, as the artists to come out of the classes for the next 10 years following this one will be the ‘most well-known’ – they are also the ones responsible for ‘creating’ the Golden Era of HK entertainment.
.—Out of the 4 names listed, I actually only know 3 of them, so that’s where my focus will be for the purposes of this post. Though I’ve never heard of Song Hao Fai, I did look him up and basically all I know is that he is a director as well as a songwriter – that’s as far as my knowledge goes though.
.—Lawrence Ng Wai Kwok should be a familiar name to most of today’s audiences, as he had participated in a handful of TVB series these past few years, including “The Drive of Life” (2007), “The Silver Chamber of Sorrows” (2008), and “The Season of Fate” (2010). Of course, his roles in each of those series were only supporting, but actually, back in the day (in the 1970s at TVB as well as Commercial Television and in the 1980s at ATV), he played mostly first male lead roles – to the point that he was nicknamed ‘Ng Siu Sang’. He was actually one of the few artists who worked for all 4 major TV stations in HK (Commercial TV, Rediffusion TV, TVB, ATV) at different points in his career. Another ‘record’ that he set was for being one of the few artists who has returned to TVB the most times : he started off at TVB in the 70s, then went to Commercial Television in 1976 – unfortunately, Commercial TV closed down in 1978, so he went to Rediffusion Television in 1979, continuing there even when RTV became ATV in 1982 and staying with ATV into the 90s. In 1993, he returned to TVB and participated in a few series, but then left again, as he was in ‘half-retired’ mode and moved his career to Mainland. It wasn’t until 2007 that he returned to TVB for the 3rd time.
I personally have not watched majority of Lawrence’s series from the 70s, 80s, or 90s, so I can’t really comment on his acting. I did watch his performance in “The Drive of Life” though and felt that he was quite good. Apparently, he was quite popular back in the day, so those who are interested in knowing more may want to ask your parents, as I’m sure they probably know who he is.
.—Angelina Lo should also be a familiar name to most audiences, as she has been consistently active at TVB for the past 3 decades, participating in countless series. 80s audiences are probably most familiar with her breakthrough role as ‘Third Auntie’ in the classic series “The Seasons” (1988) – that role pretty much made her a household name in HK. That was actually the first series that I watched of Angelina’s and she definitely left quite an impression on me – that role was one that audiences pretty much ‘loved to hate’….she wasn’t a villain by any means – it’s just that her character was bossy, loud-mouthed, annoying, rude, and always seemed to ‘hurt’ people with her words (though sometimes not intentionally). She played numerous ‘mother’ roles after that throughout the rest of the 80s, 90s, and 00s, however in my opinion, none of her subsequent roles were able to top her ‘Third Auntie’ role. In the 90s, her best role (in my opinion) was in the sitcom “Family Squad” (1992) where she played the mother of Anita Lee, Lai Hoi Shan, and Joe Tay. In the ‘after 2000s’ era, her most memorable role (again, my opinion) is probably as Roger Kwok’s mother in “Square Pegs” and “Life Made Simple”.
.—Leung Hung Wah is one of those actors whose face I recognize, but never knew his name. He was most active in the 80s, where he participated in numerous series (especially ancient series), but almost all were small roles that couldn’t even be considered ‘supporting’. If I recall correctly, I believe the biggest role in his entire acting career was in “The Return of Luk Siu Fung” (1986) – but it was still a lesser supporting role compared to others in that series. There actually isn’t a whole lot of information about Leung Hung Wah out there, but the little I was able to find pretty much stated that later on in his career, he became a director focusing on horror movies – it didn’t sound like he was too successful, as many of his films – especially later in his career – basically flopped at the box office.
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Stay tuned for part 4….if most of the names in the first few parts did not sound familiar to you, the ones starting with the next post (Class of 1974) definitely will!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
TVB Acting Classes: 1st Year Artists List – 1971-72 (Part 2 in a series)
As I promised in Part 1 of my “TVB Acting Class History” series, this post is the first of the Artists Lists that I will be posting.
TVB had a really awesome Acting Class back in the day (I'm talking late 70s / early 80s) but heading into the 90s and 00s, the format of the classes as well as the instructors changed -- to the point that an artist graduating from the Acting Class in the late 90s (as an example) has nowhere near the skill of an artist who graduated from the 70s/80s classes. I talked about this a little bit in my introductory post when I outline the history and evolution of the class.
Just as a point of reference, I felt it would be interesting to go back through the Acting Classes from its start in the 70s until present to see which artists had gone through the classes and which ones did not. I did some research and was able to find various listings related to the classes. I tried my best to compile as inclusive of a list as I could, but of course, some information dates as far back as 30 years and therefore may not be available anymore. So please do not consider this an all-inclusive list because it most likely isn’t (and if there are any inaccuracies with the information, I apologize in advance).
Whenever possible, I tried to list out the artists’ English names, but since I’m not familiar with all the artists and some of them may not even have English names, I decided to use Cantonese pinyin for the translated portion.
** Note 1: The artists’ names listed in BOLD are the ones who were actually active in the HK entertainment industry (as far as I know) and /or ones whom most audiences will probably be familiar with.
** Note 2: Under the “Summary & Thoughts” section, I’ve listed various tidbits as well as other descriptive info about some of the artists that I’ve highlighted in BOLD.
Hopefully, readers may find this list useful. If there are any artists listed that you would like to comment on, please feel free!
.***.
Names list credit to : HKM Mon Amour
TVB 藝員訓練班（第一期）- 1971 -72年
TVB’s Acting Class – 1st year (1971-72)
呂有慧 (Lisa Lui Yau Wai)、陳嘉儀 (Chan Kar Yi)、莊文清 (Chong Man Ching)、郭鋒 (Samuel Kwok Fung)、高妙思 (Ko Miu Si)、蘇杏璇 (So Hang Suen)、黃允材 (Wong Wan Choi)、甘國亮 (Kam Kwok Leung)、招振強 (Chiu Chun Keung)、許紹雄 (Benz Hui)、陳美琪 (Maggie Chan), 劉緯民 (Lau Wai Min)、陳喜蓮 (Chan Hei Lian)、金興賢 (Kam Hing Yin)、關聰 (Kwan Chung), 林偉圖 (Lam Wai To)、林德祿 (Lam Tak Luk)、梁立人 (Leung Lap Yan)、陳婉桃 (Chan Yuen To)、張惠儀 (Cheung Wai Yi)、蔡婉萍 (Choi Yuen Ping)、周如英 (Chow Yu Ying)、覃恩美 (Tam Yan Mei)、何鳳翎 (Ho Feng Ling)、許楚娟 (Hui Chor Jun)、顧小萍 (Ku Siu Ping)、郭雅烈 (Kwok Ya Lit)、鄺靜美 (Kwong Jing Mei)、李佩貞 (Lee Pei Zhen)、李小梨 (Lee Siu Lei)、岑清媚 (Shum Ching Mei)、蘇文儀 (So Man Yi)、孫明貞 (Suen Ming Zhen)、王麗容 (Wong Lai Yong)、汪慧莉 (Wang Wai Lei) 、楊蓮桂 (Yang Lian Gui)、陳培達 (Chan Pei Tat)、鄭樹光 (Cheng Shu Kwong)、張汝棠 (Cheung Yu Tong)、梁大成 (Leung Dai Sing)、施學全 (Si Hok Chuen)、田民族 (Tin Min Juk)、溫燦華 (Wan Chan Wah)、甄怡石 (Yan Yi Shek)
SUMMARY & THOUGHTS:
.-- Lisa Lui participated in many series in the 70s and 80s, however most audiences probably remember her best as Lee Mok Sau in the Andy Lau / Idy Chan version of “Return of the Condor Heroes” (also her most famous role). Current audiences probably know her from the 2010 series “Growing Through Life”, which marked her return to TVB after more than a decade (her last role prior to that if I remember correctly was a guest appearance on the 3rd installment of “Detective Investigation Files” in 1997).
.—Chan Kar Yi also participated in a lot of series in the 70s and 80s. You probably don’t recognize the name, but I’m pretty sure that those of you who were around during that time would probably recognize the face. Interestingly, her most famous role (to the ‘after 80s’ audiences anyway) was as a ‘corpse’ – she played Wong Yung’s (Barbara Yung) deceased mother in the classic 1983 version of “Legend of the Condor Heroes”, a minor character in the series whose story was told primarily in flashbacks .
.—Chong Man Ching was most active in the 70s and 80s and played supporting roles her entire career, usually portraying the ‘friend’ or ‘schoolmate’ of the main female lead (remember Angie Chiu’s friend and schoolmate Wang Yuet Kei in the 1980 version of “The Bund”?). Chong Man Ching was once married to producer Chiu Chun Keung(more on him later on in this post), but they divorced many years later. She lived a pretty difficult life -- she was known as a ‘medicine pot’ who constantly had medicine with her because of health problems, she had a mother who was a life-long gambler that she eventually severed ties with, and her marriage ended in divorce when it was discovered that her husband had an affair. In 1991, she left all the ‘troubles’ of the world behind her and entered the monastery, becoming a monk.
.— I’m sure everyone is familiar with Samuel Kwok Fung, as he is still active in the TV industry even now (he is one of my most favorite supporting actors). He participated in countless series in the close to 40 years that he has been in the industry and actually was one of the few actors who had worked for 3 of the most popular TV stations at the time: Rediffusion Television (in the 70s), TVB (in the 80s and currently), and ATV (in the 90s). His wife is actress Susanna Au Yeung(歐陽佩珊), who retired from the industry in the mid-90s and is currently working in the area of Chinese medicine (as an acupuncturist). Samuel and Susanna have been married for 34 years (wow!) – one of the early ‘golden couples’ who are still together today and still as much in love with each other as they were so many years ago! (awwww....)
.—Ko Miu Si is a another actress whom audiences will probably recognize her face, but not her name. She was most active in the 70s / early 80s and participated in majority ancient series (costume dramas). I would have to do some research to know for sure, but I’m willing to bet that she is probably the only actress who was in practically every single one of TVB’s Jin Yong and Gu Long remakes from the 70s and 80s. I know that she retired from the industry a long time ago (back in the early 90s), but that’s as far as my knowledge goes, since there is so little information about her out there nowadays.
.—If you’re an 80s TVB series fanatic, you better know who So Hang Suen is! Even if you don’t remember her name in real life, I’m sure you will definitely remember the many classic “mother” characters she played: Kwok Jing’s (Felix Wong) mother Lee Ping in 1983’s “Legend of the Condor Heroes”, Cheung Wah Kit’s (Tony Leung) mother in all 3 installments of “Police Cadet”, Ding Yau Kin’s (Felix Wong) and Ding Yau Hong’s (Deric Wan) adoptive mother Auntie Wan in 1989’s “Looking Back in Anger”, etc. (just to name a few). She retired from the industry in the mid-90s and went into the restaurant business, though she did continue to participate in series here and there, primarily in cameo roles (ATV series, not TVB). The latest I heard is that So Hang Suen is helping to teach acting at one of the schools that she and other fellow veteran artists collaborated on opening last year.
.—Wong Wan Choi is another famous supporting actor whom 80s TVB series fanatics will be familiar with – especially if you’re a fan of ancient series. He participated in so many series in the past 3 decades that I can’t even begin to recount them – but of course, one of his most famous roles (and I say ‘one’ because he surely had many famous roles) was the character Au Yeung Hak from the 1983 version of “Legend of the Condor Heroes”. Wong Wan Choi is still quite active in the industry even now, participating in stage productions and various shows in Mainland China. Not only that, he also has his medical license and is a very famous Chinese herbal doctor in Hong Kong (has been since the 80s), with his own medical clinic and everything! As if that’s not enough, he is also a philanthropist who has devoted most of his life in the past decade doing charity work and helping out the elderly especially. Definitely a very admirable man!
.—Kam Kwok Leung is a very talented man who wears many many hats. He is one of HK’s most famous ‘cross-media’ celebrities, as he has been involved in almost every discipline in the entertainment industry (TV, movies, music, radio, theater, etc.). At TVB, he was most famous for his screenwriting talent, as he wrote the scripts for several of the early 80s’ most popular female-oriented series such as “No Biz Like Showbiz”, “Don’t Look Now”, “No One is Innocent”, etc. He’s also a famous movie director, radio DJ / executive, actor, host, etc. Of course, many of us remember him also because of his famous ‘other half’ – he dated actress / host DoDo (Carol) Cheng for 10 years back in the 80s (they broke up in 1990 but are still friends).
.—I mentioned Chiu Chun Keung earlier in this post. He is one of TVB’s most famous producers from the 70s and 80s. Some of the series that he produced include (these are just the most famous ones): “The Bund” (1980) with Chow Yun Fat, Ray Lui, Angie Chiu, “You Only Live Twice” with Michael Miu and Jamie Chik, “Police Cadet 84” with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, “Police Cadet 85” with Tony Leung and Margie Tsang….just to name a few….he went to ATV in the late 80s but didn’t have much success. He returned to TVB in 1996 to produce his last series “Once Upon a Time in Shanghai” (the remake of “The Bund” with Sunny Chan, Gordon Lam, Nnadia Chan), but then left after that….not 100% sure what he is doing now, though I think he’s working in movies currently. The other ‘situation’ he was famous for was his affair with 80s actress Ng Sai Mei (吳茜薇), whom he married after his divorce with Chong Man Ching.
.—Benz Hui (also known as “Green Leaf King”) is my all time favorite supporting actor! He has pretty much been consistently active in the HK television industry since the early 70s up to today (2011), so I guess I don’t need to do much in terms of intro, since most people know who he is. One interesting tidbit about Benz (other than how his English name came about – which you probably guessed is because he used to drive a Mercedes Benz to work) is that he actually has an aristocratic family background, as his great-grandfather was a high-ranking bureaucrat in Imperial times; also, his great-aunt is the wife of famous Chinese author Lu Xun (other members of his family also have ‘famous’ pasts, but too many to list). Anyway, I love Benz – he’s definitely one of the greatest supporting actors of all time!!
.—Maggie Chan also isn’t a stranger to viewers, as she participated in a lot of series in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. I of course remember her most for her roles in “Detective Investigation Files” (she played Kenix Kwok’s older sister) and “Untraceable Evidence” (she played Flora Chan’s older sister). I’ve always liked how Maggie is so natural with her acting, which is why I enjoy almost all of her performances (even if I don’t like the series itself). Maggie is actually known as a 才女 (‘gifted female’) in the industry, as she is very studious and even obtained an MBA at the same time that she was pursuing her acting career (she’s definitely one of the few artists in the industry who actually continued her studies and has Masters level education). She lives with her family (her second husband and his children) in Shanghai and the past few years, has taken to writing lyrics for songs.
.—Not sure how many people are familiar with Kam Hing Yin, as he is considered more of a 70s actor, since that was the height of his career. In the 80s, he was with ATV and in the 90s was when he returned to TVB. I’m actually not familiar with any of Kam Hing Yin’s works from the 70s or 80s, but I have seen most of the series he’s been in from the 90s. My understanding is that he’s also a movie actor as well.
.—Kwan Chung may not be a familiar name or face to most audiences – unless you are a fan of author Gu Long that is, as his most famous on-screen performance was as Mo Fa Monk in the 70s version of “Chor Lau Heung” (the Adam Cheng version). That role made Kwan Chung pretty much a household name in Taiwan (I wonder why Taiwan?). Also, he has a famous dad – the late veteran senior actor Kwan Hoi San (關海山).
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Sorry to say that I'm actually not familiar with the rest of the artists in the list, so I'm pretty much going to end my summary here.
Stay tuned for Part 3!
TVB had a really awesome Acting Class back in the day (I'm talking late 70s / early 80s) but heading into the 90s and 00s, the format of the classes as well as the instructors changed -- to the point that an artist graduating from the Acting Class in the late 90s (as an example) has nowhere near the skill of an artist who graduated from the 70s/80s classes. I talked about this a little bit in my introductory post when I outline the history and evolution of the class.
Just as a point of reference, I felt it would be interesting to go back through the Acting Classes from its start in the 70s until present to see which artists had gone through the classes and which ones did not. I did some research and was able to find various listings related to the classes. I tried my best to compile as inclusive of a list as I could, but of course, some information dates as far back as 30 years and therefore may not be available anymore. So please do not consider this an all-inclusive list because it most likely isn’t (and if there are any inaccuracies with the information, I apologize in advance).
Whenever possible, I tried to list out the artists’ English names, but since I’m not familiar with all the artists and some of them may not even have English names, I decided to use Cantonese pinyin for the translated portion.
** Note 1: The artists’ names listed in BOLD are the ones who were actually active in the HK entertainment industry (as far as I know) and /or ones whom most audiences will probably be familiar with.
** Note 2: Under the “Summary & Thoughts” section, I’ve listed various tidbits as well as other descriptive info about some of the artists that I’ve highlighted in BOLD.
Hopefully, readers may find this list useful. If there are any artists listed that you would like to comment on, please feel free!
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Names list credit to : HKM Mon Amour
TVB 藝員訓練班（第一期）- 1971 -72年
TVB’s Acting Class – 1st year (1971-72)
呂有慧 (Lisa Lui Yau Wai)、陳嘉儀 (Chan Kar Yi)、莊文清 (Chong Man Ching)、郭鋒 (Samuel Kwok Fung)、高妙思 (Ko Miu Si)、蘇杏璇 (So Hang Suen)、黃允材 (Wong Wan Choi)、甘國亮 (Kam Kwok Leung)、招振強 (Chiu Chun Keung)、許紹雄 (Benz Hui)、陳美琪 (Maggie Chan), 劉緯民 (Lau Wai Min)、陳喜蓮 (Chan Hei Lian)、金興賢 (Kam Hing Yin)、關聰 (Kwan Chung), 林偉圖 (Lam Wai To)、林德祿 (Lam Tak Luk)、梁立人 (Leung Lap Yan)、陳婉桃 (Chan Yuen To)、張惠儀 (Cheung Wai Yi)、蔡婉萍 (Choi Yuen Ping)、周如英 (Chow Yu Ying)、覃恩美 (Tam Yan Mei)、何鳳翎 (Ho Feng Ling)、許楚娟 (Hui Chor Jun)、顧小萍 (Ku Siu Ping)、郭雅烈 (Kwok Ya Lit)、鄺靜美 (Kwong Jing Mei)、李佩貞 (Lee Pei Zhen)、李小梨 (Lee Siu Lei)、岑清媚 (Shum Ching Mei)、蘇文儀 (So Man Yi)、孫明貞 (Suen Ming Zhen)、王麗容 (Wong Lai Yong)、汪慧莉 (Wang Wai Lei) 、楊蓮桂 (Yang Lian Gui)、陳培達 (Chan Pei Tat)、鄭樹光 (Cheng Shu Kwong)、張汝棠 (Cheung Yu Tong)、梁大成 (Leung Dai Sing)、施學全 (Si Hok Chuen)、田民族 (Tin Min Juk)、溫燦華 (Wan Chan Wah)、甄怡石 (Yan Yi Shek)
SUMMARY & THOUGHTS:
.-- Lisa Lui participated in many series in the 70s and 80s, however most audiences probably remember her best as Lee Mok Sau in the Andy Lau / Idy Chan version of “Return of the Condor Heroes” (also her most famous role). Current audiences probably know her from the 2010 series “Growing Through Life”, which marked her return to TVB after more than a decade (her last role prior to that if I remember correctly was a guest appearance on the 3rd installment of “Detective Investigation Files” in 1997).
.—Chan Kar Yi also participated in a lot of series in the 70s and 80s. You probably don’t recognize the name, but I’m pretty sure that those of you who were around during that time would probably recognize the face. Interestingly, her most famous role (to the ‘after 80s’ audiences anyway) was as a ‘corpse’ – she played Wong Yung’s (Barbara Yung) deceased mother in the classic 1983 version of “Legend of the Condor Heroes”, a minor character in the series whose story was told primarily in flashbacks .
.—Chong Man Ching was most active in the 70s and 80s and played supporting roles her entire career, usually portraying the ‘friend’ or ‘schoolmate’ of the main female lead (remember Angie Chiu’s friend and schoolmate Wang Yuet Kei in the 1980 version of “The Bund”?). Chong Man Ching was once married to producer Chiu Chun Keung(more on him later on in this post), but they divorced many years later. She lived a pretty difficult life -- she was known as a ‘medicine pot’ who constantly had medicine with her because of health problems, she had a mother who was a life-long gambler that she eventually severed ties with, and her marriage ended in divorce when it was discovered that her husband had an affair. In 1991, she left all the ‘troubles’ of the world behind her and entered the monastery, becoming a monk.
.— I’m sure everyone is familiar with Samuel Kwok Fung, as he is still active in the TV industry even now (he is one of my most favorite supporting actors). He participated in countless series in the close to 40 years that he has been in the industry and actually was one of the few actors who had worked for 3 of the most popular TV stations at the time: Rediffusion Television (in the 70s), TVB (in the 80s and currently), and ATV (in the 90s). His wife is actress Susanna Au Yeung(歐陽佩珊), who retired from the industry in the mid-90s and is currently working in the area of Chinese medicine (as an acupuncturist). Samuel and Susanna have been married for 34 years (wow!) – one of the early ‘golden couples’ who are still together today and still as much in love with each other as they were so many years ago! (awwww....)
.—Ko Miu Si is a another actress whom audiences will probably recognize her face, but not her name. She was most active in the 70s / early 80s and participated in majority ancient series (costume dramas). I would have to do some research to know for sure, but I’m willing to bet that she is probably the only actress who was in practically every single one of TVB’s Jin Yong and Gu Long remakes from the 70s and 80s. I know that she retired from the industry a long time ago (back in the early 90s), but that’s as far as my knowledge goes, since there is so little information about her out there nowadays.
.—If you’re an 80s TVB series fanatic, you better know who So Hang Suen is! Even if you don’t remember her name in real life, I’m sure you will definitely remember the many classic “mother” characters she played: Kwok Jing’s (Felix Wong) mother Lee Ping in 1983’s “Legend of the Condor Heroes”, Cheung Wah Kit’s (Tony Leung) mother in all 3 installments of “Police Cadet”, Ding Yau Kin’s (Felix Wong) and Ding Yau Hong’s (Deric Wan) adoptive mother Auntie Wan in 1989’s “Looking Back in Anger”, etc. (just to name a few). She retired from the industry in the mid-90s and went into the restaurant business, though she did continue to participate in series here and there, primarily in cameo roles (ATV series, not TVB). The latest I heard is that So Hang Suen is helping to teach acting at one of the schools that she and other fellow veteran artists collaborated on opening last year.
.—Wong Wan Choi is another famous supporting actor whom 80s TVB series fanatics will be familiar with – especially if you’re a fan of ancient series. He participated in so many series in the past 3 decades that I can’t even begin to recount them – but of course, one of his most famous roles (and I say ‘one’ because he surely had many famous roles) was the character Au Yeung Hak from the 1983 version of “Legend of the Condor Heroes”. Wong Wan Choi is still quite active in the industry even now, participating in stage productions and various shows in Mainland China. Not only that, he also has his medical license and is a very famous Chinese herbal doctor in Hong Kong (has been since the 80s), with his own medical clinic and everything! As if that’s not enough, he is also a philanthropist who has devoted most of his life in the past decade doing charity work and helping out the elderly especially. Definitely a very admirable man!
.—Kam Kwok Leung is a very talented man who wears many many hats. He is one of HK’s most famous ‘cross-media’ celebrities, as he has been involved in almost every discipline in the entertainment industry (TV, movies, music, radio, theater, etc.). At TVB, he was most famous for his screenwriting talent, as he wrote the scripts for several of the early 80s’ most popular female-oriented series such as “No Biz Like Showbiz”, “Don’t Look Now”, “No One is Innocent”, etc. He’s also a famous movie director, radio DJ / executive, actor, host, etc. Of course, many of us remember him also because of his famous ‘other half’ – he dated actress / host DoDo (Carol) Cheng for 10 years back in the 80s (they broke up in 1990 but are still friends).
.—I mentioned Chiu Chun Keung earlier in this post. He is one of TVB’s most famous producers from the 70s and 80s. Some of the series that he produced include (these are just the most famous ones): “The Bund” (1980) with Chow Yun Fat, Ray Lui, Angie Chiu, “You Only Live Twice” with Michael Miu and Jamie Chik, “Police Cadet 84” with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, “Police Cadet 85” with Tony Leung and Margie Tsang….just to name a few….he went to ATV in the late 80s but didn’t have much success. He returned to TVB in 1996 to produce his last series “Once Upon a Time in Shanghai” (the remake of “The Bund” with Sunny Chan, Gordon Lam, Nnadia Chan), but then left after that….not 100% sure what he is doing now, though I think he’s working in movies currently. The other ‘situation’ he was famous for was his affair with 80s actress Ng Sai Mei (吳茜薇), whom he married after his divorce with Chong Man Ching.
.—Benz Hui (also known as “Green Leaf King”) is my all time favorite supporting actor! He has pretty much been consistently active in the HK television industry since the early 70s up to today (2011), so I guess I don’t need to do much in terms of intro, since most people know who he is. One interesting tidbit about Benz (other than how his English name came about – which you probably guessed is because he used to drive a Mercedes Benz to work) is that he actually has an aristocratic family background, as his great-grandfather was a high-ranking bureaucrat in Imperial times; also, his great-aunt is the wife of famous Chinese author Lu Xun (other members of his family also have ‘famous’ pasts, but too many to list). Anyway, I love Benz – he’s definitely one of the greatest supporting actors of all time!!
.—Maggie Chan also isn’t a stranger to viewers, as she participated in a lot of series in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. I of course remember her most for her roles in “Detective Investigation Files” (she played Kenix Kwok’s older sister) and “Untraceable Evidence” (she played Flora Chan’s older sister). I’ve always liked how Maggie is so natural with her acting, which is why I enjoy almost all of her performances (even if I don’t like the series itself). Maggie is actually known as a 才女 (‘gifted female’) in the industry, as she is very studious and even obtained an MBA at the same time that she was pursuing her acting career (she’s definitely one of the few artists in the industry who actually continued her studies and has Masters level education). She lives with her family (her second husband and his children) in Shanghai and the past few years, has taken to writing lyrics for songs.
.—Not sure how many people are familiar with Kam Hing Yin, as he is considered more of a 70s actor, since that was the height of his career. In the 80s, he was with ATV and in the 90s was when he returned to TVB. I’m actually not familiar with any of Kam Hing Yin’s works from the 70s or 80s, but I have seen most of the series he’s been in from the 90s. My understanding is that he’s also a movie actor as well.
.—Kwan Chung may not be a familiar name or face to most audiences – unless you are a fan of author Gu Long that is, as his most famous on-screen performance was as Mo Fa Monk in the 70s version of “Chor Lau Heung” (the Adam Cheng version). That role made Kwan Chung pretty much a household name in Taiwan (I wonder why Taiwan?). Also, he has a famous dad – the late veteran senior actor Kwan Hoi San (關海山).
.***.
Sorry to say that I'm actually not familiar with the rest of the artists in the list, so I'm pretty much going to end my summary here.
Stay tuned for Part 3!
TVB Acting Classes: Intro and Brief History (Part 1 in a series) *Re-post updated version*
NOTE: I decided to start up my "TVB Acting Class History" series again, since the last time I published was back in October 2010. Below is pretty much the original post that I wrote last year, with a few slight edits. Part 2 will be posted up shortly....
*********************************
*** Original posting published in October 2010***
Reading all the articles about Kiki Sheung's wedding last week inspired me to write a blog post on the following topic --TVB's Acting Classes.
Just as a bit of background: Kiki graduated from TVB's 12th Acting Class in 1983 -- which, by the way, was the last year that TVB had the full year acting classes (more on this later). For her wedding, Kiki invited all of her classmates from Acting Class -- and pretty much all of them attended! As an 80s fanatic, I loved reading the articles and seeing the picture because it was basically like an Acting Class reunion -- especially since many of the artists are no longer active in HK's television industry and so we (audiences) may not have seen them for a long time! And I actually thought it was very sweet of her classmates to attend her wedding as well as go on stage to tell stories and give blessings to Kiki and her husband. I'm sure it meant alot to her -- especially since she probably hadn't seen many of the artists for a long time!
This leads me to the original topic at hand -- TVB's Acting Classes. The below is more of a "history" of the Acting Classes based on my memory (growing up in the 80s/90s) as well as some follow-up research that I had done. In the subsequent parts, I will list the artists for each year’s acting class, however note that the list will NOT be complete, as I will only be listing those artists who are either somewhat familiar to audiences or eventually became well-known.
One 'disclaimer' regarding the below info -- the summary as well as the list of artists for each year's acting class is based on a list I found on the internet as well as from my own compiled data from magazines, books, TV shows, and other sources (mostly interviews with some of the artists that I watched/read throughout the past 20 or so years). With that said, if anyone finds any inaccuracies with the information, please let me know. Thanks.
.***
Quick summary / History
TVB's acting classes started in 1971 for the purpose of training up acting talent. In the early days, TVB’s acting classes were a collaborative effort with Shaw Brothers Studios – it wasn’t until the 9th class (1979) that the acting classes were organized exclusively by TVB (no longer collaborative with Shaw Brothers).
The initial classes lasted 1 full year and were full day classes (just like regular school). The 1 year was separated into 2 parts – the first 6 months were dedicated to learning basic knowledge needed for performing in front of the camera as well as various ‘behind-the-scenes’ concepts. Curriculum included: performance, dialogue, dance, martial arts, screenwriting theory, photography basics, television concepts, form and structure analogy, makeup, fashion, hairstyling, etc. The last 6 months were dedicated to ‘hands-on practice’ or internships out in the field. Of course, within the year, there are various tests that the students must take and only those who passed all the tests, went through all the courses, and successfully graduated were allowed to become TVB artists.
.**
Since we’re talking about the TVB acting classes, I feel that it would be appropriate to mention one of the biggest reasons why the acting classes from the 70s and 80s were such a huge success: the instructors who taught each of the classes and were truly responsible for the success of many of the big name artists (i.e.: Chow Yun Fat, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Carina Lau, Sean Lau, etc.). The most famous acting class instructors back in the 70s/80s were Chung King Fai (King Sir), Chan You Hou, and Lau Fong Gong, among many others.
As a side note, I felt the need to talk a little bit about these instructors, as I find it unfortunate that they do not get much mention by TVB or by the general Media, even though their contributions to the industry are so great (fortunately, many of the artists from the 70s/80s who went through acting class DO mention the instructors often and express their gratitude to them for their teaching and instruction). Well, if TVB and the Media don’t care about giving credit where it’s due, that’s their issue – I personally have a lot of respect for these elders and so this is my way of paying tribute to them…
King Sir actually wears many hats, as he is active in both theater as well as television and has taken up posts in acting, directing, producing, teaching, etc. He has a doctorate degree, has gotten many awards, and has dedicated almost his entire life to the entertainment industry. He has actually worked at both TVB as well as ATV and is most famous for establishing the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts back in 1984 -- the HKAPA is the ONLY professional Performing Arts school in HK. (Some of the most famous graduates from the HKAPA: actors/actresses Sunny Chan, Power Chan, Rain Lau, Gigi Lai, Anthony Wong, Wong Cho Lam, Marco Ngai, etc. as well as singer G.E.M.). King Sir currently has gone back to his acting roots and continues to participate occasionally in TV series, though his real passion is for theater, which he continues to participate in actively. His most recent theater work was the stageplay “Richard III”, co-starring Bowie Lam.
Chan You Hou (known as ‘Uncle Hou’) is one of TV’s most senior actors who also started in theater. Ironically, his forte is actually in teaching, but he is probably the most well-known for his acting, at least for HK audiences (I actually never knew he was a teacher until my mom told me, then I went back and researched more about him). He participated in numerous series (too many to count) from the 1970s to the early 1990s and had also worked for ATV’s predecessor Rediffusion TV back in the 1970s. He retired and immigrated to Canada in the 1990s, but then returned to live permanently in Hong Kong later in the decade. Some of Uncle Hou’s most famous students: Chow Yun Fat, Liza Wang, Johnnie To, Alex Man, etc. Sadly, Chan You Hou passed away due to illness in June of this year at the age of 96.
Lau Fong Gong was a film director from Taiwan who formerly worked for the Shaw Brothers in the 1970s, then switched to TVB to become a writer/director and eventually became an instructor for the acting classes – in fact, he wasn’t just an instructor, he was actually the supervisor of the acting classes. Since he didn’t participate in any TV series like King Sir or Uncle Hou, many audiences may not know who he is – but I’m sure many people know actress Gigi Wong, whom he was married to for almost 10 years (they divorced in 1978). Lau Fong Gong is also credited with launching the careers of quite a few artists – the most famous ones were: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Carina Lau, Stephen Chow, as well as director Wong Kar Wai. Lau passed away in November 2004 at the age of 77..**
The acting classes in the full year format lasted 12 years, ending with the 12th Acting Class in 1983 (Kiki Sheung’s year).
Starting in 1984, TVB changed the format of the acting classes completely – instead of doing a 1 year course, they changed to a 3 month ‘crash course’. Also, the classes were no longer known as ‘Acting Classes’ but rather ‘Artist Recruitments’ that was divided into 3 main categories – actors, dancers, and hosts. So pretty much, instead of doing full-fledged classes and training people to become actors, they switched to ‘recruiting’ artists for each of the specific categories, then having them take the 3 month crash course to learn what they needed to know.
In my opinion, this actually wasn’t a bad format, since it allowed artists to focus on certain disciplines rather than just one (hey, you never know – some artists may not want to be actors and may want to be hosts or dancers instead). The only thing I don’t like about this format is the ‘fast-track’ approach, since 3 months really is not sufficient to learn the skills necessary to become truly great actors/actresses. I personally feel that this type of ‘fast-track’ course contributed TVB’s lack of quality artists in the later decades (1990s/2000s). As you’ll see later on when I post the lists of ‘well-known’ acting class / artist recruitment graduates, the number of ‘famous’ or even ‘known’ artists will dwindle drastically (meaning fewer recognizable artists).
In 1987, the official 'Acting Classes' were reinstated, but I'm sure that the curriculum changed from what it was prior to 1984. Also, it's not clear whether the length of the class went back to 1 year or remained at 3 months.
Unfortunately, around the late 1990s/early 2000s is when my ‘acting class history’ knowledge starts to get fuzzy, as that was around the time that I started getting disappointed with TVB and sort of stopped ‘following’ them as closely as I was before (though I resumed again several years ago and was able to ‘catch up’ for the most part). I had heard that some time in the 90s, TVB had reinstated the 6 month format in terms of the courses, but I don’t know for sure.
So there you go….thank you for reading my ‘in a nutshell’ version of TVB’s acting class history.
Please ‘stay tuned’ for the next topic in my ‘TVB Acting Class’ series!
*********************************
*** Original posting published in October 2010***
Reading all the articles about Kiki Sheung's wedding last week inspired me to write a blog post on the following topic --TVB's Acting Classes.
Just as a bit of background: Kiki graduated from TVB's 12th Acting Class in 1983 -- which, by the way, was the last year that TVB had the full year acting classes (more on this later). For her wedding, Kiki invited all of her classmates from Acting Class -- and pretty much all of them attended! As an 80s fanatic, I loved reading the articles and seeing the picture because it was basically like an Acting Class reunion -- especially since many of the artists are no longer active in HK's television industry and so we (audiences) may not have seen them for a long time! And I actually thought it was very sweet of her classmates to attend her wedding as well as go on stage to tell stories and give blessings to Kiki and her husband. I'm sure it meant alot to her -- especially since she probably hadn't seen many of the artists for a long time!
This leads me to the original topic at hand -- TVB's Acting Classes. The below is more of a "history" of the Acting Classes based on my memory (growing up in the 80s/90s) as well as some follow-up research that I had done. In the subsequent parts, I will list the artists for each year’s acting class, however note that the list will NOT be complete, as I will only be listing those artists who are either somewhat familiar to audiences or eventually became well-known.
One 'disclaimer' regarding the below info -- the summary as well as the list of artists for each year's acting class is based on a list I found on the internet as well as from my own compiled data from magazines, books, TV shows, and other sources (mostly interviews with some of the artists that I watched/read throughout the past 20 or so years). With that said, if anyone finds any inaccuracies with the information, please let me know. Thanks.
.***
Quick summary / History
TVB's acting classes started in 1971 for the purpose of training up acting talent. In the early days, TVB’s acting classes were a collaborative effort with Shaw Brothers Studios – it wasn’t until the 9th class (1979) that the acting classes were organized exclusively by TVB (no longer collaborative with Shaw Brothers).
The initial classes lasted 1 full year and were full day classes (just like regular school). The 1 year was separated into 2 parts – the first 6 months were dedicated to learning basic knowledge needed for performing in front of the camera as well as various ‘behind-the-scenes’ concepts. Curriculum included: performance, dialogue, dance, martial arts, screenwriting theory, photography basics, television concepts, form and structure analogy, makeup, fashion, hairstyling, etc. The last 6 months were dedicated to ‘hands-on practice’ or internships out in the field. Of course, within the year, there are various tests that the students must take and only those who passed all the tests, went through all the courses, and successfully graduated were allowed to become TVB artists.
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Since we’re talking about the TVB acting classes, I feel that it would be appropriate to mention one of the biggest reasons why the acting classes from the 70s and 80s were such a huge success: the instructors who taught each of the classes and were truly responsible for the success of many of the big name artists (i.e.: Chow Yun Fat, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Carina Lau, Sean Lau, etc.). The most famous acting class instructors back in the 70s/80s were Chung King Fai (King Sir), Chan You Hou, and Lau Fong Gong, among many others.
As a side note, I felt the need to talk a little bit about these instructors, as I find it unfortunate that they do not get much mention by TVB or by the general Media, even though their contributions to the industry are so great (fortunately, many of the artists from the 70s/80s who went through acting class DO mention the instructors often and express their gratitude to them for their teaching and instruction). Well, if TVB and the Media don’t care about giving credit where it’s due, that’s their issue – I personally have a lot of respect for these elders and so this is my way of paying tribute to them…
King Sir actually wears many hats, as he is active in both theater as well as television and has taken up posts in acting, directing, producing, teaching, etc. He has a doctorate degree, has gotten many awards, and has dedicated almost his entire life to the entertainment industry. He has actually worked at both TVB as well as ATV and is most famous for establishing the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts back in 1984 -- the HKAPA is the ONLY professional Performing Arts school in HK. (Some of the most famous graduates from the HKAPA: actors/actresses Sunny Chan, Power Chan, Rain Lau, Gigi Lai, Anthony Wong, Wong Cho Lam, Marco Ngai, etc. as well as singer G.E.M.). King Sir currently has gone back to his acting roots and continues to participate occasionally in TV series, though his real passion is for theater, which he continues to participate in actively. His most recent theater work was the stageplay “Richard III”, co-starring Bowie Lam.
Chan You Hou (known as ‘Uncle Hou’) is one of TV’s most senior actors who also started in theater. Ironically, his forte is actually in teaching, but he is probably the most well-known for his acting, at least for HK audiences (I actually never knew he was a teacher until my mom told me, then I went back and researched more about him). He participated in numerous series (too many to count) from the 1970s to the early 1990s and had also worked for ATV’s predecessor Rediffusion TV back in the 1970s. He retired and immigrated to Canada in the 1990s, but then returned to live permanently in Hong Kong later in the decade. Some of Uncle Hou’s most famous students: Chow Yun Fat, Liza Wang, Johnnie To, Alex Man, etc. Sadly, Chan You Hou passed away due to illness in June of this year at the age of 96.
Lau Fong Gong was a film director from Taiwan who formerly worked for the Shaw Brothers in the 1970s, then switched to TVB to become a writer/director and eventually became an instructor for the acting classes – in fact, he wasn’t just an instructor, he was actually the supervisor of the acting classes. Since he didn’t participate in any TV series like King Sir or Uncle Hou, many audiences may not know who he is – but I’m sure many people know actress Gigi Wong, whom he was married to for almost 10 years (they divorced in 1978). Lau Fong Gong is also credited with launching the careers of quite a few artists – the most famous ones were: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Carina Lau, Stephen Chow, as well as director Wong Kar Wai. Lau passed away in November 2004 at the age of 77..**
The acting classes in the full year format lasted 12 years, ending with the 12th Acting Class in 1983 (Kiki Sheung’s year).
Starting in 1984, TVB changed the format of the acting classes completely – instead of doing a 1 year course, they changed to a 3 month ‘crash course’. Also, the classes were no longer known as ‘Acting Classes’ but rather ‘Artist Recruitments’ that was divided into 3 main categories – actors, dancers, and hosts. So pretty much, instead of doing full-fledged classes and training people to become actors, they switched to ‘recruiting’ artists for each of the specific categories, then having them take the 3 month crash course to learn what they needed to know.
In my opinion, this actually wasn’t a bad format, since it allowed artists to focus on certain disciplines rather than just one (hey, you never know – some artists may not want to be actors and may want to be hosts or dancers instead). The only thing I don’t like about this format is the ‘fast-track’ approach, since 3 months really is not sufficient to learn the skills necessary to become truly great actors/actresses. I personally feel that this type of ‘fast-track’ course contributed TVB’s lack of quality artists in the later decades (1990s/2000s). As you’ll see later on when I post the lists of ‘well-known’ acting class / artist recruitment graduates, the number of ‘famous’ or even ‘known’ artists will dwindle drastically (meaning fewer recognizable artists).
In 1987, the official 'Acting Classes' were reinstated, but I'm sure that the curriculum changed from what it was prior to 1984. Also, it's not clear whether the length of the class went back to 1 year or remained at 3 months.
Unfortunately, around the late 1990s/early 2000s is when my ‘acting class history’ knowledge starts to get fuzzy, as that was around the time that I started getting disappointed with TVB and sort of stopped ‘following’ them as closely as I was before (though I resumed again several years ago and was able to ‘catch up’ for the most part). I had heard that some time in the 90s, TVB had reinstated the 6 month format in terms of the courses, but I don’t know for sure.
So there you go….thank you for reading my ‘in a nutshell’ version of TVB’s acting class history.
Please ‘stay tuned’ for the next topic in my ‘TVB Acting Class’ series!
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