Detailed Biography

Andy Lau Tak-Wah MH, JP is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer, film actor, and producer. He has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the 1990s. Andy Lau has since appeared in more than 100 films and 300 mini-series with Hong Kong's TVB channel, and has a huge fan base throughout Asia with the success of both his on-screen performances and his musical career.

Film career

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 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 for Best Actor. In 2004, he won the prestigious Golden Horse Award for his performance in Infernal Affairs III, 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 and second runner-up Jackie Chan . "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 .

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 .

Musical career

Besides acting, Andy Lau also sings. He was trained in singing under 戴思聰 since 1982. His first music contract came in 1985 and his first album, which was released in Hong Kong that year, was called "只知道此刻愛你" . However, his first album was not a big hit.

Despite having a voice not traditionally associated with popular music, Andy Lau's hard work and perseverance resulted in him being one of the most successful Chinese music celebrities, with an extensive list of Cantonese and Mandarin hits to his credit. His singing career reached stellar status in 1990 with the release of the album entitled 可不可以 "Would It Be Possible?", and his subsequent releases only solidified his status as a marketable singer. Many of his songs quickly topped the music charts, not only in Hong Kong, but also in Taiwan, Mainland China, and in many different parts of Asia.

Some of the most notable hits by Andy Lau include 一起走過的日子 , 愛不完 , 如果你是我的傳說 , 潮水 , 忘情水 , 真永遠 , 中國人 , 笨小孩 , 愛你一萬年 ), 你是我的女人 , 暗裡著迷 .

Besides singing in Cantonese and Mandarin, Andy Lau had sung in other languages as well, such as English, Japanese, Malay, and Taiwanese. His Taiwanese song was called 世界第一等.

Since the early 1990s, Andy Lau, along with Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai have been referred by the Chinese media as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings .

Since 1992, Lau has appeared in concert more than 180 times.

Andy Lau also entered into Guinness World Records for "Most Awards Won By A Canto-Pop Male Artist". By April 2000, Andy Lau had won an unprecedented 292 awards, for a singing career that began in 1988. From TVB’s Jade Solid Gold Award Ceremony since 1990, he has won the “Most Popular Hong Kong Male Artist” award 6 times and he has won the “Asia Pacific Most Popular Hong Kong Male Artist” award 15 times. In fact, in 2004, Andy Lau became the first ever singer in the history of TVB’s Jade Solid Gold Award Ceremony to win both the “Most Popular Hong Kong Male Artist” award and the “Asia Pacific Most Popular Hong Kong Male Artist” award.

As well as being a versatile singer, Andy Lau also writes lyrics and composes music for others and for himself.

He also participated and sung in the theme song of the 10th Anniversary of the Establishment of the HKSAR with the other three Heavenly Kings and other famous Hong Kong singers.

Andy Lau sang alongside of Jackie Chan during a part of the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony on August 24, 2008. In addition, Andy Lau, whom has been supporting the disabled athletes in Hong Kong for more than a decade, was appointed as the Goodwill ambassador for the 2008 Summer Paralympics. He led other performers in singing and performing the song "Everyone is No.1" in the Beijing National Stadium just a few hours before the 2008 Paralympics opening ceremony began to show his support for the disabled athletes . In fact, Andy Lau's music video "Everyone is no.1" was especially made to support athletes with disabilities . He also sang the 2008 Paralympic theme song, "Flying with the Dream," with Han Hong during the 2008 Paralympics opening ceremony on September 6, 2008 .

Andy is about to embark on a tour of Australia - visiting Sydney in early October 2008 on his Wonderful World tour.

Appearance in other media

Andy Lau is alleged to have been featured as a non-player character as a random pedestrian in a sandbox-style action video game called PROTOTYPE. The game was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in early June 2009. The striking resemblance of Lau is well recognized especially by gamers in Asia where Lau is tremendously well received. This was further publicized when a Hong Kong fan made comedy called 瘋狂歌迷襲擊劉德華 along with an English subtitled version of the same film were released and both well received on YouTube in late June 2009. On 6 July, the Hong Kong local newspapers Hong Kong Headline頭條日報 and Sing Tao Daily星島日報 also reported on Lau's cameo.

Trivia

* Despite having a huge screen presence, Andy is only 5'5 in real life. Madame Tussauds Hong Kong unveiled the wax figure of Lau on June 1, 2005.
Lau has demonstrated a proficient command of Chinese calligraphy during onstage performances. Some film titles have been written by his hand and used in their respective promotional materials.
In 2003, he started his own media company called Focus Group Holdings Limited.
In the mid-nineties, Lau had his own brand of sunglasses called ALD, pronounced "old", .
Over the years, like a number of other celebrities, Lau has voiced and appeared in a number of public service announcements. One of his public service announcements for customer service was spoofed in the 2003 film, Golden Chicken, in which Lau appeared in a cameo role. His most recent public service announcement is to encourage businesses to join the Quality Tourism Services Scheme. The advertisement uses excerpts from Infernal Affair, whilst recreating a scene from the movie.
Andy Lau experienced unexpected notoriety with the encounter of 29 year old fan Yang Lijuan , who idolized him for 16 years. After her parents sold the family house to pay the trip to Hong Kong, she finally met him on March 25, 2007. One day later, Yang's father committed suicide by throwing himself into the Salisbury Sea , possible reasons being bankruptcy, shame and pressure from the media. This was the second trip to Hong Kong for this Sichuanese family, and a third trip was even considered but the late father Yang would have had to sell his kidney, which stirred up an outcry from the public.
Andy Lau was selected as one of the torchbearers in the HK Torch Relay for the 2008 Beijing Olympics .

Duets

Awards and nominations

Hong Kong Film Awards Best New Performer Nomination for Boat People
Best Actor Nomination for As Tears Go By
Best Actor Nomination for Lee Rock
Best Original Film Song Nomination for Casino Raiders II
Best Original Film Song Nomination for Heaven and Earth
Best Actor Nomination for Full Throttle
Best Original Film Song Nomination for Full Throttle
Best Film for Made in Hong Kong
Best Original Film Song Nomination for Island of Greed
Best Film Nomination for The Longest Summer
Best Original Film Song Nomiantion for The Longest Summer
Best Original Film Song Nomination for A True Mob Story
Best Actor for Running Out of Time
Best Actor Nomination for A Fighter's Blues
Best Actor Nomination for Love on a Diet
Best Original Film Song Nomination for Shaolin Soccer
Best Actor Nomination for Infernal Affairs
Best Original Film Song for Infernal Affairs
Best Actor for Running on Karma
Best Actor Nomination for Wait 'Til You're Older
Best Original Film Song Nomination for Wait 'Til You're Older
Best Best Asian Film Nomination for Crazy Stone
Best Actor Nomination for The Warlords
Best Supporting Actor for Protégé
Best Original Film Song Nomination for Brothers