Portly,
affable scene-stealer and Milkyway regular Lam Suet
was born in Tianjin. He came to Hong Kong as a youth
in 1979 to receive inheritance money left by his
grandfather. Soon after, all the money had been
squandered and Lam had to work various odd jobs
to make a living. In the mid-eighties he got employment
on movie sets through the help of friends. He's
done practically everything, from lighting and props
to stage manager and set and script supervisor.
Lam gradually developed an interest in acting and,
by his own account, pestered various directors until
they relented and gave him tiny bit roles. There
are two pivotal people in Lam's acting career. The
first is Stephen Chow, who befriended him in his
early days as a crew member and cast him in movies
like God of Cookery (1996) and Kung Fu
Hustle (2004). The second person is, of course,
director Johnnie To. Lam has been in over 80 films
since 1996 and at least 20 of those have been directed
or produced by To. The most notable To-Lam collaborations
include The Mission (1999), which garnered
Lam Best Supporting Actor nominations at the Hong
Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards, and
PTU (2003). Lam was nominated for a Golden
Horse Best Supporting Actor Award and took home
the Golden Bauhinia Best Supporting Actor Award
for his role in PTU as a cop who loses his
gun, though he arguably should have been in the
Best Actor category. He has also had interesting
roles in movies like Wu Yen (2001), as the
effeminate Prime Minister, and in Diva - Ah Hey
(2003), in which he played Charlene Choi's loving
and supportive papa. Lam has been married for almost
a decade. His wife is 10 younger than him and comes
from the same hometown. (Yinique 2005)
