Tony Leung Chiu-Wai Biography

Born Tony Leung Chiu-Wai in Hong Kong, Tony Leung is an actor and one of China’s most internationally recognized stars.

He, along with his sister Laura, were raised solely by their mother after his father, a chronic gambler, left the family when Tony was eight. Described as a quiet and reserved boy, Tony isolated himself further after his father's abandonment of the family. However, he credits his childhood experiences as laying the foundation for his attraction to acting and the ability to express oneself and one’s feelings through them.

Tony attended private school until the age of 15 when financial difficulties caused him to drop out. After working a variety of jobs, a chance meeting with future actor and filmmaker Stephen Chow set him on a path towards an acting career. After passing training courses for the television channel TVB, he began his acting career in 1982.

He would eventually work his way up into prominent roles on TV shows like The Duke of Mount Deer (1984) and New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre (1986). However, it was his comedic work that would truly launch him into stardom as he would join four other well known TV actors (Andy Lau, Felix Wong, Michael Miu, and Kent Tong) to form TVB’s Five Tigers, a group of up-and-coming male TV stars.

After an eight-year stint on TVB, Tony left the network to focus on his film career, which first took off with Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 1989 drama A City of Sadness, which won the Venice Gold Lion that same year. This would eventually lead him to his first breakout hit in John Woo’s 1992 action classic Hard Boiled, starring alongside Chow Yun-fat.

From there Tony Leung would frequently collaborate with celebrated director Wong Kar-wai with roles in films such as Chungking Express (1994), Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love (2000) and The Grandmaster (2013). Tony garnered great acclaim for his performance in In the Mood for Love, winning a Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. His acting ability is said to have garnered the admiration of Oscar winners Brad Pitt and Robert De Niro, leading him to being recognized as one of his generation’s finest actors.

In spite of this Tony Leung took his time breaking into Hollywood, with his first attempts coming in the '90s. However, Tony refused to take on roles that would degrade his image in China or reinforce Asian stereotypes. Films such as Infernal Affairs (2002) and Hero (2002) are amongst his more prominently recognized films in North America. Tony Leung would make another attempt in the mid 2000s signing with an American agent in 2005, but it wouldn’t be until 2019 that it was announced he was joining a major Hollywood film.

That film would be Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), in which he was cast as Wenwu, Shang-Chi's father.

Tony Leung married his longtime girlfriend, Carina Lau, and most recently celebrated their 13th anniversary.