Tony Leung Chiu-wai

Tony Leung Chiu-wai was born on June 27, 1962, in Hong Kong to parents of Taishan, Guangdong ancestry. His father, a chronic gambler, left the family when Tony was eight, and Leung grew up withdrawn; he left Delia Memorial School at 15 for financial reasons. Around age 16 he met future comedian Stephen Chow, who encouraged him toward acting, and in 1982 he graduated from TVB's acting class, first appearing on the children's program "430 Space Shuttle" before moving into drama series such as The Duke of Mount Deer (1984) and New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre (1986). He was grouped with Andy Lau, Felix Wong, Michael Miu and Kent Tong as TVB's "Five Tigers," and in 1984 starred opposite Maggie Cheung in the serial Police Cadet, the first of a long series of collaborations between the two.

His role in Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness (1989), winner of the Golden Lion at Venice, drew international attention. In 1992 he declined a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Hard Boiled, arguing his was a leading role, a protest backed by director John Woo and co-star Chow Yun-fat that led the Hong Kong Film Awards to revise its nomination rules. In 1994 he won Best Actor at both the Golden Horse Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards for Chungking Express, becoming only the second actor to take both prizes for the same role.

Leung has made seven films with director Wong Kar-wai, including Happy Together (1997), in which he played a gay Hong Kong expatriate in Buenos Aires; In the Mood for Love (2000), for which he won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival; its loose sequel 2046 (2004); and The Grandmaster (2013), for which he trained in Wing Chun for five years to play martial artist Ip Man. In 2023 he became the first male actor to win Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards, Hong Kong Film Awards and Golden Rooster Awards, and he received an honorary Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival, the first Chinese actor so honored. He made his Hollywood debut in 2021 as Wenwu in Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Leung married actress Carina Lau on July 21, 2008, in a Buddhist ceremony in Bhutan directed by Wong Kar-wai, after the couple had been together since 1989. France named him an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2015.