Actors - Leslie Cheung

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	Actors - Leslie Cheung

Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing (September 12, 1956 - April 1, 2003) (; Cantonese , Jyutping: zoeng1 kwok3 wing4; Mandarin Pinyin: Zhāng Guóróng, Wades-Giles: λChang Kuo-jung; nickname "Gor-gor" (哥哥, "Elder Brother" in Cantonese)) was an actor and a musician from Hong Kong.

Childhood and Education

Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing was born in Kowloon, Hong Kong. His born name was Cheung Fat-chung, which was later changed to Cheung Kwok-wing. Cheung was the youngest of 10 children in a middle-class family. His father was a fairly well-known tailor, whose customers included the American actors William Holden and Cary Grant . His parents divorced when he was quite young. At the age of 13, he was sent to England as a boarder at Norwich School and faced racial discrimination at the school. He worked as a bartender at his relatives' restaurant and sung during the weekends. It was around this period that he chose his name, "Leslie". According to Cheung, he chose this name because "I love the film Gone with the Wind. And I like Leslie Howard. The name can be a man's or woman's, it's very unisex, so I like it.".

In several of his interviews, Cheung stated that he had a fairly unhappy childhood. "I didn't have a happy childhood. Arguments, fights and we didn't live together; I was brought up by my granny." (Time magazine interview with Richard Corliss) "What I would say most affected me as a child, was that my parents were not at home with me. As a young kid, one could not always understand why his parents weren't at home. This made me depressed sometimes."

Cheung attended Leeds University in northern England, where he majored in textile management. He dropped out of Leeds University at the end of his freshman year in 1976, when his father fell ill. After his father's recovery, Cheung did not return to England to complete his studies.

Career

Cheung was considered as "One of the founding fathers of Cantopop," and "combining a hugely successful film and music career".

Beginning of Career

In 1976, Cheung won second prize at Asian Music Contest held by Rediffusion Television Co. (RTV). He signed a contract with RTV (RTV subsequently became Asia Television Company (ATV)) and began his career in the entertainment industry. He also signed a music contract with Polydor Records, releasing Day Dreaming (1977) and Lover's Arrow (1979).

The early days of his career were not easy. He was once booed off the stage during a public performance, and his first two albums were not welcomed by the public. He left Polydor Records at the end of his contract. Cheung's first film, The Erotic Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓春上春) in 1978 was a soft porn film, marking a low point in his career. Cheung later stated that he was unaware of the sexual nature of the film when he signed the contract.

During the 70s and 80s, he appeared in a number of TV dramas such as The Young Concubine (我家的女人), Agency 24 (甜甜廿四味), Pairing (對對糊), and The Spirit Of The Sword (浣花洗劍錄). These TV dramas helped turn him into a household name in South East Asia.

Ascension to Fame

In 1982, Cheung joined Capital Artists upon the end of his contract with RTV. It was at Capital Artist that Florence Chan became his music agent and remained as such through his demise. While at Capital Artist, he also met Anita Mui, another Hong Kong Cantopop idol, starting a long lasting friendship. In 1983, Cheung released his first hit song, The Wind Blows On. In 1984, he released his first top ten hit song Monica, which became the first so-called "fast" song that won the RTHK Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award. Monica became representative of a new genre of Hong Kong music in the mid 1980s. Fans began to demand fast and energetic Cantopop songs that would be suitable for both dancing and listening. Other Top Ten Gold Songs released by Cheung through Capital Artists included Wild Wind (不羈的風) (album, For Your Love Only, 1985); Who Can Be With Me (有誰共鳴) (album, Leslie Cheung: Allure Me, 1986) and Mode of Those Years (當年情) (theme song for A Better Tomorrow
, album Leslie Cheung: Allure Me, 1986). Who Can Be With Me (有誰共鳴) became the Gold of the Gold Songs (Best Song) of the Year for 1986.

Cheung's movie career was a little slower to take off. He appeared in supporting roles in his second and third movies Encore (1980) and On Trial (1981). However, his acting talent was soon recognized with his nomination for the Hong Kong Film Awards's Best Supporting Actor for his role in On Trial. Subsequently after this nomination, he began to star as the leading man in Teenage Dreamers (1982) and has held the lead role in almost every movie he had been in since. From the early 1980s through 1986, most of the movies in which he had starred were teenage movies. Among them, Nomad (1982, directed by Patrick Tam Kar-ming) are widely considered by film critic as the representation of the Hong Kong "New Wave" films. Cheung's role as Louis in Nomad won him his first Best Actor nomination of the Hong Kong Film Awards. Later, Cheung stated that he considers Nomad as his first "real" movie. During this period, Cheung continued to act in a number of Television Broadcasts (TVB) dramas, such as Once Upon an Ordinary Girl (儂本多情) and The Fallen Family (武林世家).

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Actors - Leslie Cheung

Childhood and Education

Career

Beginning of Career

Ascension to Fame

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