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Andy Lau
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- Not to be confused with film director Andrew Lau.
Andy Lau Tak-Wah MH, JP (born September 27, 1961) is a Hong Kong Chinese Cantopop star, movie actor, and producer. He has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the 1990s.
The first lead role that made his initial popularity was the TVB series Hunting in 1982. In the same year, Andy acted in his first movie Once Upon a Rainbow.
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Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with film director Andrew Lau.
Andy Lau Tak-Wah MH, JP (born September 27, 1961) is a Hong Kong Chinese Cantopop star, movie actor, and producer. He has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the 1990s.
The first lead role that made his initial popularity was the TVB series Hunting in 1982. In the same year, Andy acted in his first movie Once Upon a Rainbow. Later in 1983, his role as Yang Guo in the popular wuxia TV serial The Return of the Condor Heroes landed him his first leading role in a Shaw Brothers' film called On the Wrong Track.
He is rumoured to wed his long rumoured Malaysian girlfriend, Ms. Carol Chu, in the near future.
Andy Lau has since appeared in more than 100 films and 300 mini series with Hong Kong's TVB channel, and has a huge fan base throughout Asia with the success of both his onscreen performance and his musical career. Andy Lau is best known for his (often) recurring roles as a "Heroic Gangster."
Though a respectable actor, Lau in the early days was known more for his good looks, though he has answered his detractors since the turn of the century with a series of critically acclaimed movies, especially those directed by Johnnie To. His first major acting prizes came with A Fighter's Blues and Running Out of Time in 2000. With Running Out of Time, he won his very first Hong Kong Film Award ("aka" Golden Statue Award) for Best Actor. In 2004, he won the prestigious Golden Horse Award for his performance in Infernal Affairs 3, the sequel to the popular Infernal Affairs. Western audiences may also be familiar with his performance in the House of Flying Daggers.
Andy Lau was awarded "No.1 Box Office Actor 1985-2005" of Hong Kong, yielding a total box office of HKD 1,733,275,816 for shooting 108 films in the past 20 years. It is compared to the first runner-up Stephen Chow (HKD 1,317,452,311) and second runner-up Jackie Chan (HKD 894,090,962). "I've never imagined that would be as much as 1.7 billion!" he told the reporters.
Musical career
In the 90s, despite having a voice not tradionally associated with popular music, Andy Lau's hard work resulted in his being one of the most successful Chinese music celebrities, with an extensive list of Cantonese and Mandarin hits to his credit. He was trained in singing under ???(Tai Sze Chong)since 1982. He has even sang a Taiwanese song entitled ?????. His first music contract came in 1985, but his singing career reached stellar status in 1990 with the release of the album entitled ???? "Would It Be Possible?", and his subsequent releases only solidified his status as a marketable singer.
Andy Lau along with Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai also named as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings (???? Cantonese: sêi daài tïn wong, Pinyin: sì dà tian wáng).
Andy Lau also entered into Guinness World Records for "Most Awards Won By A Canto-Pop Male Artist". By April 2000, Andy Lau had won an unprecedented 292 awards, for a singing career that began in 1988. Since 1992, Lau has appeared in concert more than 180 times.
The most notable hits by Andy Lau include ??????? (The Days We Spent Together), ??? (Everlasting Love), ?? (The Tide), ??? (Forget Love Potion), ??? (Chinese People), ??? (Stupid Child), ????? (Love You Forever (lit. Love You For 10,000 Years)), ?????? (You Are My Woman), ???? (Secret Admiration).
As well as being a versatile singer, Andy Lau also writes lyrics and composes music for many of his songs.
He also participated and sung in the theme song of the 10th Anniversary of the Establishment of the HKSAR with the other three Heavenly Kings and other famous Hong Kong Famous singers.
Andy Lau sang along side of Jackie Chan during a part of the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony on August 24th, 2008. In addition, Andy Lau, as the Goodwill ambassador for the 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, led other performers in singing and performing the song "Everyone is No.1" in the Beijing National Stadium just a few hours before the 2008 Paralympic ceremony began to show their support for the disabled athletes . In fact, Andy Lau's music video "Everyone is no.1" was especially made to support athletes with disabilities . He also sang the theme song, "Flying with the Dream," with Han Hong during the 2008 Paralympics opening ceremony on September 6, 2008 .
Andy is about to embark on a tour of Australia - visiting Sydney in early October 2008 on his Wonderful World tour.
Trivia
- Madame Tussauds Hong Kong unveiled the wax figure of Lau on June 1, 2005.
- Lau has demonstrated a proficient command of Chinese calligraphy during onstage performances. Some film titles have been written by his hand (Jiang Hu, A Battle of Wits, etc) and used in their respective promotional materials.
- In 2003, he started his own media company called Focus Group Holdings Limited.
- In the mid-nineties, Lau had his own brand of sunglasses called ALD, pronounced "old", (Andy Lau Design).
- Over the years, like a number of other celebrities, Lau has voiced and appeared in a number of public service announcements. One of his public service announcements for customer service was spoofed in the 2003 film, Golden Chicken, in which Lau appeared in a cameo role. His most recent (as of April 2008) public service announcement is to encourage businesses to join the Quality Tourism Services Scheme. The advertisement uses excerpts from Infernal Affair, whilst recreating a scene from the movie.
- Andy Lau experienced unexpected notoriety with the encounter of 29 year old fan Yang Lijuan , who idolized him for 16 years. After her parents sold the family house to pay the trip to Hong Kong, she finally met him on March 25, 2007. One day later, Yang's father committed suicide by throwing himself into the Salisbury Sea (Hong Kong), possible reasons being bankruptcy, shame and pressure from the media. This was the second trip to Hong Kong for this Sichuanese family, and a third trip was even considered but the late father Yang would have had to sell his kidney, which stirred up an outcry from the public.
Duets
- With Anita Mui
- Dance of a Dream
- Don't Say Love Hurts
- Moon Represents My Heart
- With Kenny G
- ?????? - You Are My Woman (1998)
- With Tony Leung
- ??? - Infernal Affairs (Cantonese Version) (2002)
- ??? - Infernal Affairs (Mandarin Version) (2002)
See also
External links
- (Chinese)
- - Andy Lau's Official Fan Club (Chinese/Japanese/English)
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- - Andy Lau Forum (English)
- - Andy Lau Forum (Chinese)
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