10 things to know about the late HK actor Kenneth Tsang Kong

Kenneth Tsang Kong won Best Supporting Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2015 for his movie 'Overhead 3'. Photo: AP

Hong Kong veteran actor Kenneth Tsang died at the age of 86 on Wednesday (April 27).

Here are 10 things to know about Tsang.

1. Tsang was born Tsang Koon Yat in Shanghai on Sept 5, 1934 and moved with his family Hong Kong in 1949. He was the elder brother of actress Jeanette Lin Tsui, who died after an asthmatic attack at age 60 in 1995. He was also the uncle of singer Linda Wong, 53, and former singer-actor Christopher Chan, 61.

2. Tsang made his film debut due to his sister Lin, who was already a film star in the early 1950s. He was spotted by director Doe Ching while visiting his sister on a film set, who then cast him in the movie The Feud (1955) with actress Lucilla You Min.

3. Tsang then left for the United States to study architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned to Hong Kong in the early 1960s and was an architect for three years, but found that the job mundane and rejoined the entertainment industry. He then starred in the movie The Big Circus (1964) with actresses Lan Di and Helen Li Mei, and which was directed by his then brother-in-law Chun Kim.

4. He went on to act in more than 200 TV serials and movies in his career, including more than 100 Cantonese movies in the 1960s and 1970s. He has starred several times with actress Suet Nay in swordfighting films such as Paragon Of Sword And Knife (1967), The Mighty Palm (1968) and The Twin Swords (1969).

5. Tsang joined broadcaster TVB in 1981 and rose to fame playing eccentric pugilist Huang Yaoshi in TV series Legend Of The Condor Heroes (1983), an adaptation of late writer Louis Cha's martial arts novel. Another memorable role was that of a corrupt police officer in the TV series The Greed Of Man (1992). Many Hong Kongers also remember him for appearing in the Bigen hair dye in the 1980s.

6. Tsang has also acted in Singapore in TV serials such as The Teochew Family, The Unbeatables II (1996), The New Adventures Of Wisely (1998) and Riding The Storm (1999). He sparked a controversy in Singapore in 1995 when he said "Singapore actors are stupid" in an interview with a local weekly entertainment magazine. He later apologised for his remarks.

7. His command of English also saw him venturing into Hollywood, acting in movies such as The Replacement Killers (1998) and Anna And The King (1999), both starring Hong Kong actor Chow Yun Fat, Rush Hour 2 (2001) starring action star Jackie Chan, and Memoirs Of A Geisha (2005), with actresses Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh.

8. Tsang was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2012 for his role as the antagonist Tony Wong in surveillance thriller Overheard 2 (2011), but lost out to another veteran actor Lo Hoi Pang for his role in the movie Life Without Principle (2011). Tsang subsequently won Best Supporting Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2015 for his role as the rural strongman Uncle To in Overheard 3 (2014).

9. Tsang was in the news in Hong Kong in 2015 after fellow veteran actor Patrick Tse accused him of faking illness while filming the travelling programme Four Amigos Bon Voyage and slapped him at a press conference while promoting the show which also starred veteran actors Bowie Woo and Joe Junior. Tsang and Tse claimed later that it was staged.

10. Tsang was married thrice. His first wife was Malaysia-born Lan Di, his co-star in The Big Circus. They tied the knot in 1969 but divorced 10 years later. Lan, who gave Tsang a son, died at age 50 in 1991.The actor married columnist and model Barbara Tang in 1980 and they have a daughter. They divorced 10 years later. He married veteran actress Lisa Chiao Chiao, now 79, in 1994 in Singapore. They have no children together. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network