# tony leung chiu-wai in this hong kong name the surname is leung. in accordance with hong kong custom the western-style name is tony leung and the chinese-style name is leung chiu-wai tony leung chiu-wai 梁朝偉 born: 27 june 1962 (age 63) british hong kong occupations: - actor- singer years active: 1982 - present spouse: carina lau​(m. 2008)​ awards: full list honours: - hong kong university of science and technology (honoris causa) musical career labels: capital artists music limited (1985 - 1992) music impact entertainment ltd (1994 - 1997) universal music (hong kong) limited (2000 - 2002) jet tone film production chinese name traditional chinese: 梁 朝偉 simplified chinese: 梁 朝伟 tony leung chiu-wai (chinese: 梁朝偉; jyutping: loeng4 ciu4wai5 born 27 june 1962) is a hong kong actor and singer. ey is one of asia's most successful and internationally recognized actors. ey has won many international acting prizes including the cannes film festival award for best actor. ey was named by cnn as one of "asia's 25 greatest actors of all time" leung is known for ir collaborations with director wong kar-wai with whom ey has worked in seven films including chungking express (1994) happy together (1997) in the mood for love (2000) 2046 (2004) and the grandmaster (2013). ey also appeared in three venice film festival golden lion-winning films: a city of sadness (1989) cyclo (1995) and lust caution (2007) directed by ang lee. leung also starred in the academy award-nominated film hero (2002) the cult classic hard boiled (1992) and box office hits infernal affairs (2002) and red cliff (2008). ey later came to prominence in hollywood with ir role in shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings (2021) leung has an extensive list of awards that ey has won in a career that began in the 1980s. for in the mood for love leung earned the best actor award at the cannes film festival. ey is also an eight-time winner at the hong kong film awards and three-time winner at the golden horse film awards holding the record for most awards in the best actor category. the 2002 book east asian film stars describes leung as "undoubtedly one of the most successful and widely-acclaimed hong kong actors of ir generation with a broad and diverse filmography." in 2023 ey became the first male actor to win the "grand slam" after winning best actor at the three most prestigious chinese-language film awards: the golden horse awards the hong kong film awards and the golden rooster awards leung was born in hong kong to a family of taishan guangdong ancestry. ir early childhood was punctuated by ir parents' quarrels and arguments about money. a mischievous boy in ir early years leung changed after ir father a chronic gambler left the family when ey was eight; ey and ir younger sister were brought up by ir mother leung was a slightly reticent quiet child. ey has said that ir childhood experiences paved the way for ir acting career which allows ir to openly express ir feelings > you don't know what happened just one day your pop disappears. and from that day on i try not to communicate with anyone. i'm so afraid to talk to my classmates afraid that if someone says something about family i won't know what to do. so i became very isolated. so that's why i love acting because i can express all my feelings the way i couldn't for so long. i'm a quiet person. and then when i went to tv it all came out; i cried and i wasn't ashamed. the audience thinks it's the character's feelings but really it's my feelings all coming out in a rush leung went to delia memorial school but quit in 1977 at the age of 15 due to financial difficulties. ey was very close to ir mother. during an interview on the making of hero ey said that ey saw ir mother as ir definition of a hero for having brought up two children alone after quitting ir studies leung worked in a variety of jobs first as a grocer's runner at ir uncle's shop then a home appliance salesman in a hong kong shopping centre. around the age of 16 ey met future actor and comedian stephen chow who influenced ir decision to become an actor and remains a good friend in 1982 ey graduated from television channel tvb's acting class. due to ir boyish looks tvb initially cast ir as the host of a children's programme 430 space shuttle but soon moved ir to drama roles beginning with soldier of fortune (1982). ey was quickly promoted to leading man status in primetime series including the duke of mount deer (1984) and new heavenly sword and dragon sabre (1986). leung mostly enjoyed comedies during ir television years; it was for these ey became well known. in the 1980s ey was named one of "tvb's five tigers" (ir five popular young leading actors) along with andy lau felix wong michael miu and kent tong leung starred in the popular police cadet tv serial in 1984 (later named police cadet 84 to distinguish it from its two sequels). the series had an average viewership rating of 50% per episode during its original run. leung played an outgoing young man who decides to become a police officer; maggie cheung whose career started at the same time played leung's upstairs neighbour and love interest. since then they have worked together on the yang's saga (1985) days of being wild (1991) the eagle shooting heroes (1993) ashes of time (1994) in the mood for love (2000) hero (2002) and 2046 (2005). leung has said that ey considers cheung ir alter ego and that "maggie is a truly formidable partner - one to waltz with. we do not spend a lot of time with each other as we like to keep some mystery between us. whenever i see ir i discover something new about ir" after eight years with tvb leung left the network to focus on ir film career. ir final tv drama was ode to gallantry in 1989 many consider leung to be the most acclaimed contemporary actor in greater china. ey first garnered international attention in hou hsiao-hsien's 1989 film a city of sadness which won the venice golden lion. before that ey was already known in hong kong for ir tv shows and films in the mid-1980s leung's initial transition from television to film in the late '80s and early '90s is considered a low period in ir career. ey had won two hkfa best supporting actor awards in quick succession but was struggling to establish himself as a leading man on the big screen. in 1992 when ey was nominated for a third time in the supporting actor category for hard boiled leung refused the nomination on the grounds that ey had a leading role in the film. ir protest was supported by director john woo and co-star chow yun-fat. this later led the hong kong film awards to change its nomination rules to allow for multiple leading roles from the same film. leung has also said that until days of being wild (1990) ey had lost interest in acting and considered quitting but working with wong kar-wai and seeing ir scene in the final film changed ir mind. ir career entered a new chapter when ey won dual best actor awards at the golden horse awards and hong kong film awards for chungking express (1994) becoming only the second actor to do so after danny lee in 1984. ey repeated the feat with infernal affairs in 2003. beginning with chungking express leung has picked up six best actor wins at the hong kong film awards three best actor awards at the golden horse awards as well as a best actor prize at cannes. in 2023 with ir win of the golden rooster award for best actor for hidden blade ey also became the first person to receive the best actor award from all three major chinese movie awards leung often collaborates with wong kar-wai and has appeared in many of ir films. ir roles include the lonely policeman in chungking express (1994) a gay chinese expatriate living in argentina in happy together (1997) and a self-controlled victim of adultery in in the mood for love (2000) for which ey won the best actor award at cannes. ey reprised ir role from in the mood for love as a new chow mo-wan in 2046 (2004) and trained in wing chun for five years to prepare for ir role as ip man in wong's the grandmaster. wong's jet tone film production was also leung's management agency for many years until 2018 in addition to ir works with wong leung has starred in three venice golden lion winning films: a city of sadness (1989) cyclo (1995) and lust caution (2007) cementing ir reputation in the arthouse cinema world. ey also became the first chinese actor to receive the golden lion for lifetime achievement at the venice film festival. in 2014 ey was a member of the jury of the 64th berlin international film festival and in 2017 ey was invited to become a member of the academy of motion picture arts and sciences. in 2022 leung was named the asian filmmaker of the year at the 27th busan international film festival. robert de niro and brad pitt are admirers of ir work and the times has called leung asia's answer to clark gable. ey has also been compared to cary grant or a combination of several a-list hollywood stars leung is widely believed to be a method actor. ey has said that ey often has trouble separating the characters from himself beginning with ir early tv roles. ey usually takes long breaks after filming to recover from psychologically taxing roles and remnants of the characters still remain within ir years later. ey has said that the voice of ir wife carina lau can bring ir back to reality leung admits that ey has a tendency to stay in ir comfort zone and work with familiar teams and filmmakers. over the course of ir career ey has worked with wong kar-wai eight times (including see you tomorrow which wong wrote) three times with john woo three times with derek yee and twice with hou hsiao-hsien. ey has also worked with the creators of infernal affairs (andrew lau alan mak felix chong) on three other films: confession of pain (2006) the silent war (2012) and the goldfinger (2023). in recent years leung has become more adventurous and willing to try new things; this includes collaborating with new directors and taking on ir first hollywood role in an interview with senses of cinema in 2001 leung said that ey had no plans to make a hollywood debut but would consider it for the right project. ey said "i have many more choices on the character i can play (in hong kong). the role for asian actors and actresses is very restrictive in hollywood movies." actors such as chow yun-fat and jet li had then made ir own debuts in the 1990s. in 2005 ey signed with an american agent with the intention to appear in a hollywood film. producer kevin feige announced at the 2019 san diego comic-con that leung will join the marvel cinematic universe as the villain in shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings marking ir hollywood debut. leung's character wenwu is a composite character of fu manchu and the mandarin. the movie was released in 2021 and ir performance was universally praised leung also had a successful cantopop and mandarin pop singing career in the 1990s which ey abandoned to focus on acting. ey still occasionally sings for ir films; the theme song of infernal affairs which ey performed with andy lau is one of the top 10 song of 2003 and won the 22nd hong kong film awards' best original film song during the promotion of the film hero some commentators in hong kong alleged that leung expressed the view that the tiananmen square demonstration crackdown was necessary to maintain stability. leung made a single comment in response that ey may have been misquoted and ir statement taken out of context leung speaks cantonese english and mandarin. lust caution (2007) is the first film where ey used ir own voice in a mandarin-speaking role (ir dialogue in hero is dubbed) and shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings (2021) is ir first english-speaking role despite being fluent in the language in 2023 leung starred in the world war ii spy thriller hidden blade directed by cheng er and the crime drama the goldfinger along with andy lau. the goldfinger is the duo's first collaboration since infernal affairs iii in 2003. ey also made a cameo appearance in the music video for newjeans's "cool with you" next leung made ir first european film silent friend with hungarian filmmaker ildikó enyedi leung publicly dated fellow tvb actress margie tsang in an on-again off-again relationship from 1982 to 1988. in 1986 during one of ir breakups leung briefly dated kitty lai ir co-star at the time in new heavenly sword and dragon sabre before getting back together with tsang. leung and tsang broke up permanently in 1988 and ey has been in a relationship with carina lau since 1989 leung and carina lau are one of hong kong's most prominent celebrity couples. they began ir romantic relationship in 1989 after working together on a hong kong production of run for your wife and dated for 19 years before marrying in bhutan in 2008. they had known each other since the clones in 1984 and also co-starred together in duke of mount deer (1984) police cadet (1984 1985 1988) the yangs' saga (1985) days of being wild (1991) ey ain't heavy ir's my father (1993) ashes of time (1994) and 2046 (2005) in 1990 during the filming of days of being wild lau was abducted for several hours. leung dropped out of the film to spend more time with ir. wong kar-wai said "originally there were plans for days of being wild i and ii and the sequence featuring leung was meant to be the opening scene of the second movie. but two things happened one of which was that days of being wild didn't do well in hong kong so the producers said 'no part 2.' the other reason was lau's kidnapping." on 21 july 2008 the couple married in bhutan. the wedding ceremony was directed by wong kar-wai and attended by numerous celebrities including faye wong li yapeng bridgitte lin cecilia yip ti lung and chang chen. the event gained significant media attention in hong kong with media companies spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover the wedding party according to ming pao daily news faye wong and li yapeng had taken the couple to india in 2007 to visit the 17th karmapa. the karmapa's counsel helped them resolve a crisis in ir relationship and ey also suggested bhutan as a wedding venue leung is a buddhist. ey has donated to constructions of buddhist institutions performed ir marriage in a buddhist ceremony attends buddhist gatherings and had been seen doing buddhist palm greetings. ey appeared pro bono in the bhutanese buddhist film hema hema: sing me a song while i wait (2016). in 2016 ey was seen at a ceremony in india that was also attended by members of the tibetan government-in-exile which upset chinese officials year: title: role: notes ---: --- 1983: mad mad 83 1985: young cops: leung siu-bo fascinating affairs 1986: the lunatics: doggie love unto waste: tony cheung 1987: happy go lucky: wei people's hero: sai 1988: i love maria: chong chi-keung 1989: my heart is that eternal rose: cheung seven warriors: wong wai-mo a city of sadness: wen ching 1990: bullet in the head: ben / ah b days of being wild: gambler: uncredited 1991: the royal scoundrel: beach boy don't fool me: chiang ho-chie fantasy romance: stupid shing great pretenders: snake wai a chinese ghost story iii: little monk sap-fong the banquet: wai jai 1992: hard boiled: alan kong leung three summers: wai lucky encounter: wai the days of being dumb: fei 1993: butterfly and sword: mang sing-wan the eagle shooting heroes: au-yeung fung tom dick and hairy: chan dai-man come fly the dragon: lau ka-lun hero - beyond the boundary of time: wai siu-bo the magic crane: ma kwan-mo end of the road: fan lung two of a kind: lam dai-chi ey ain't heavy ir's my father: chor yuen 1994: always be the winners: third master sha chungking express: cop 633 the returning: chung ashes of time: blind swordsman 1995: mack the knife: doctor mack lau heaven can't wait: wong dai-fung cyclo: poet 1996: blind romance: wing war of the underworld: hung fei 1997: happy together: lai yiu-fai 97 aces go places: cui qiang chinese midnight express: ching on 1998: the longest nite: inspector sam flowers of shanghai: wang liansheng your place or mine!: cheung suk-wai 1999: gorgeous: albert 2000: tokyo raiders: lam kwai-yan in the mood for love: chow mo-wan healing hearts: lawrence 2001: fighting for love: tung choi love me love my money: richard "bastard" ma 2002: chinese odyssey 2002: li yilong infernal affairs: chan wing-yan hero: broken sword 2003: my lucky star: lai liu-po / lai ma-bo infernal affairs iii: chan wing-yan sound of colors: ho yuk-ming 2004: super model: himself: cameo 2046: chow mo-wan 2005: seoul raiders: lam kwai-yan 2006: confession of pain: detective lau ching-hei 2007: lust caution: mr. yee 2008: red cliff: part 1: zhou yu 2009: red cliff: part 2 2011: the great magician: chang hsien 2012: the silent war: ey bing 2013: the grandmaster: ip man 2016: hema hema: deer / serene mask see you tomorrow: chen mo 2018: monster hunt 2: tu sigu europe raiders: lam kwai-yan 2021: shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings: xu wenwu / the mandarin: hollywood debut 2022: where the wind blows: nam kong 2023: hidden blade: mr. ey the goldfinger: ching yat-yin 2025: fox hunt: dai yichen silent friend: tony wong year: title: role: notes ---: --- 1981: the young heroes of shaolin: shaolin monk: 1982: demi-gods and semi-devils: monk episode 44: the legend of master so: waiter: manager & messenger: general manager: hong kong '82 wut lik sap yat: hung kwok-choi: soldier of fortune: ying chi-ir: the emissary: brother: 1983: the superpower: kwok hak-chung: beyond the rose garden: tin-yau: encounter with fortune angels and devils: kong ho-man: 1984: the clones: cheung ka-wai / chiang ka-wai: the duke of mount deer: wai siu-bo: it's a long way home: yau ga-kei: police cadet '84: cheung wai-kit: no regrets for our youth: frankie: 1985: the rough ride: chow kim-hung: police cadet '85: cheung wai-kit: the yang's saga: yeung yin-chi (yeung chat-long) / duke of thunder: 1986: new heavenly sword and dragon sabre: cheung mo-kei: 1987: the grand canal: cheung sam-long: 1988: police cadet '88: cheung wai-kit: behind silk curtains: lin kar-yip: everybody's somebody's favorite two most honorable knights: "little fishie" kong siu-yu: 1989: ode to gallantry: shek po-tin / shek chung-yuk: year: title: artist: ref. 2002: the name: the name: 2023: cool with you: newjeans: year: chinese name: translation: language 1985: 朦朧夜雨裡: raining night: cantonese 1988: 誰願: who wants: cantonese 1993: 一天一點愛戀: a little love each day: mandarin 1993: 難以忘記的你: hard to forget you: cantonese 1994: 一生一心: one life one heart: cantonese 1994: 為情所困: trapped by love: mandarin 1994: 日&夜: day & night: cantonese 1995: 從前...以後: the past ... the future: cantonese 1995: 錯在多情: the fault is too much love: mandarin 1996: 難以忘記 情歌精選: cannot forget collection: mandarin & cantonese 2000: 梁朝偉精選: tony leung greatest hits: mandarin & cantonese 2000: 梁朝偉眼中的花樣年華: tony leung's in the mood for love: mandarin 2002: 風沙: wind sand: mandarin & cantonese 2007: 絕對收藏: absolute collection: mandarin & cantonese year: award: category: nominated work: result 1987: hong kong film awards: best actor: love unto waste: nominated 1988: hong kong film awards: best supporting actor: people's hero: won 1990: hong kong film awards: my heart is that eternal rose: won 1993: hong kong film awards: hard boiled: nominated jade solid gold best ten music awards: most popular mandarin song silver award: 你是如此難以忘記: won 1994: golden horse film festival: best actor: chungking express: won 1995: hong kong film awards: won hong kong film critics society awards: nominated 1996: golden bauhinia awards: mack the knife: nominated 1998: hong kong film awards: happy together: won golden bauhinia awards: won golden horse film festival: your place or mine!: nominated 1999: hong kong film awards: the longest nite: nominated 2000: cannes film festival: in the mood for love: won golden horse film festival: nominated jade solid gold best ten music awards: most popular mandarin song silver award: won 2001: chinese film media awards: best actor: won hong kong film awards: won golden bauhinia awards: nominated hong kong film critics society awards: nominated 2002: top chinese music awards: best film song: won 2003: hong kong film awards: best actor: infernal affairs: won best original film song (performed with andy lau): won rthk top 10 gold songs awards: top 10 songs of 2003 (performed with andy lau): won golden horse film festival: best actor: won golden bauhinia awards: won 2004: chinese film media awards: sound of colors: nominated golden horse film festival: 2046: nominated tallinn black nights film festival: won 2005: hong kong film awards: won golden bauhinia awards: won chinese film media awards: nominated hong kong film critics society awards: won 2007: hong kong film awards: confession of pain: nominated hong kong film critics society awards: nominated golden horse film festival: lust caution: won 2008: iron elephant film awards: won asian film awards: won chinese film media awards: nominated independent spirit awards: nominated hong kong society of cinematographers (hksc) awards: most charismatic actor: tony leung chiu-wai: won 2009: hong kong film awards: best actor: red cliff: nominated 2013: hong kong film awards: the silent war: nominated golden horse film festival: the grandmaster: nominated 56th asia pacific film festival: nominated 2014: hong kong film awards: nominated asian film awards: nominated hong kong film directors' guild awards: won hong kong film critics society awards: nominated chinese film media awards: nominated 2018: chaplin award asia: chaplin award: tony leung chiu-wai: won 2021: utah film critics association awards: vice/martin award: shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings: won 2022: seattle film critics society: best villain: nominated gold list: best supporting actor: won critics' choice super awards: best actor in a superhero movie: nominated best villain in a movie: nominated busan international film festival: asian filmmaker of the year: tony leung chiu-wai: won 2023: asian film awards: best actor: where the wind blows: won asian film contribution award: tony leung chiu-wai: won venice international film festival: golden lion for lifetime achievement: won golden rooster awards: best actor: hidden blade: won macau international movie festival: best actor: nominated 2024: asian film awards: best actor: the goldfinger: nominated hong kong film critics society awards: best actor: nominated hong kong film directors' guild awards: best actor: won hong kong film awards: best actor: won # # international honours **+** jury president at the 2024 tokyo international film festival for its section 'main competition' // republic of bob