Date of Birth : Sep 27th 1971
Shortly after graduating from Ho Lap College, Andy Lau signed up for the artist training program offered by TVB, which is where his acting career began. The first lead role that made his initial popularity was the TVB series The Emissary in 1982. In the same year, Andy acted in his first movie Once Upon a Rainbow. He was also given a role in Ann Hui’s 1982 film, Boat People. 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.
From the early 80s to the mid 80s, Andy Lau had been the leading actor in many of the TVB series, therefore, he was named as one of “TVB’s Five Tigers” along with Tony Leung, Michael Miu, Felix Wong, and Kent Tong. However, in the late 80s, Andy Lau had to leave TVB due to contract problems so he shifted entirely into film acting and he quickly became one of Hong Kong’s most bankable stars.
Andy Lau is best known in movies for his (often) recurring roles as a “Heroic Gangster” such as “Wah” in Wong Kar Wai’s 1988 film, As Tears Go By and “Wah Dee” in Johnnie To’s 1990 film, A Moment Of Romance. 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.
In 2005, 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.
In 2007, Andy Lau was awarded the “Nielsen Box Office Star of Asia” by the Nielsen Company (ACNielsen).
Back in 1991, Andy Lau has set up his own film production company called Teamwork Motion Pictures Limited, which in 2002 was renamed to Focus Group Holdings Limited. His contributions in the film industry as well as his involvement in nurturing new talents in the Asian film industry led him to being awarded the “Asian Filmaker of the Year” in the Pusan International Film Festival in 2006.
CAREER
The Warlords ( 2008 )
House Of Flying Daggers ( 2004 )