BIOGRAPHY

After completing his studies, Tony Leung worked under contract to the television channel TVB. He began by hosting a children's program, then attained popularity by appearing on several television series.

Following these career beginnings (comparable to those of other major Hong Kong stars), Tony appeared in a series of "auteur" films which soon earned him a reputation as an extremely versatile actor. Working for several of East Asia's greatest filmmakers, he has turned in outstanding performances.

It is with Wong Kar-wai that Tony has enjoyed his strongest, most durable collaboration. Following a cameo appearance in Days of Being Wild (1991), portrayals for Wong have been a wandering knight gradually going blind (in Ashes of Time [1994], for which he won several awards); a solitary policeman in love (in Chungking Express [1994], for which he received the Best Actor award at the Hong Kong Film Awards); and a homosexual facing exile and a painful separation (in Happy Together [1997], for which he again received the Best Actor award at the Hong Kong Film Awards).

In 2000, pairing up with director Wong Kar-wai and actress Maggie Cheung, Tony received the Best Actor award for "In the Mood for Love" at the Cannes International Film Festival. Again in 2005, Tony received Best Actor Award at Hong Kong Film Awards for his role in 2046 (2005). In 2013, Tony recently released his latest film, The Grandmaster (2013).

His other notable films include John Woo's classics Bullet in the Head (1990), Hard-Boiled (1992), and Red Cliff(2008-2009); Stanley Kwan Kam-pang's Love Unto Waste (1986); Derek Yee Tung-shing's The Lunatics (1986) and The Great Magician (2012); Ching Siu-tung's A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991); Peter Chan Hoh-San and Lee Chi-Ngai's The Days of Being Dumb (1992), He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father! (1993), and Mack the Knife (1995); Tran Anh-hung's Cyclo (1995); Hou Hsiao-hsien's City of Sadness (1989) and Flowers of Shanghai (1998).

From 2000 forward, Tony has collaborated with many international well-known directors such as: Zhang Yi-Mou's Hero (2002); Andrew Lau Wai-Keung and Alan Mak Siu-Fai's Infernal Affairs (2002), Infernal Affairs III (2003); Jingle Ma Choh-Shing's Tokyo Raiders (2000) and Seoul Raiders (2005); and Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (2007).

In addition to his acting career, Tony is a very popular recording artist. Although he carefully chooses his more serious roles, he also continues to appear in farces and B-movies, making him the hardest actor in Hong Kong to pigeonhole.

To read more on Tony Leung, I wrote a tony biography in 1998 --- Days of Being Wild.

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