Andy Lau

Andy Lau was born Lau Fook-wing on September 27, 1961, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, and grew up in Diamond Hill, where his family lacked indoor plumbing and he had to fetch water for the household several times a day. He enrolled in TVB's actor training program in 1980, graduating the following year, and broke through with the series The Emissary (1982) before starring as Yang Guo in The Return of the Condor Heroes (1983). He was grouped with Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Michael Miu, Felix Wong and Kent Tong as TVB's "Five Tiger Generals."

On film, Lau's early roles included Boat People (1982) and As Tears Go By (1988), Wong Kar-wai's directorial debut, and he went on to appear in more than 160 films, among them Running Out of Time (1999) and Infernal Affairs III (2004). In 1991 he founded the production company Teamwork Motion Pictures, later reorganized as Focus Group Holdings in 2002, which produced Made in Hong Kong, A Simple Life, Crazy Stone, Firestorm and Shock Wave.

As a singer, Lau released his debut album, Just Know I Only Love You, in 1985 and had a commercial breakthrough with Would It Be Possible (1990); his 1991 single "The Days We Spent Together" became one of Cantopop's best-known ballads. In the 1990s he was named one of Cantopop's "Four Heavenly Kings" alongside Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai, and Guinness World Records credited him in 2000 with the most awards won by a Cantopop male artist, at 444 by 2006.

Lau has won three Hong Kong Film Awards and two Golden Horse Awards for Best Actor. He became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2018 and was named vice chairman of the 11th China Film Association in 2024.