Chow Yun-Fat was born May 18th, 1955 on Lamma Island, near Hong Kong. He began his acting career by joining TVB in 1973. It wasn't until the eighties that he achieved some success and popularity as gangster Hui Man-Keung in the popular serial "Shanghai Beach". Chow made his first movie in 1976—a Category III flick titled Massage Girls—but his film career got off to a shaky start as it was difficult to find roles which suited him. His first critical success was probably with The Story of Woo Viet (1981), directed by Ann Hui. The critically-acclaimed drama gave Chow a chance to show off his acting, and he demonstrated an effective ability to convey powerful emotion and sentiment. A few years followed where Chow's career seemed lost again; it was during this time that he suffered a short, failed marriage to Candice Yu On-On, another TV star.

In 1985, Chow received Best Actor awards at the Taiwan Golden Horse Film Awards and the Asian Pacific Film Festival for director Leung Po-Chi's Hong Kong 1941. Chow seemed suited to these types of dramatic roles, a talent that director John Woo recognized when casting the 1986 heroic bloodshed film A Better Tomorrow. The film was Chow's breakthrough movie, spawned an entire genre of copycat films, and made bankable stars out of both Chow and Woo. Chow's character Mark Gor was an action role, but Chow managed through his "acting" to infuse each action and gesture with raw emotion. He went on to become arguably the biggest star in Hong Kong, and was awarded with Best Actor nods at the Hong Kong Film Awards for A Better Tomorrow (1986), City on Fire (1987), and All About Ah Long (1990). He went on to a star in a plethora of Hong Kong films which encompassed action, drama and comedy; some of his most notable works include Ringo Lam's Prison on Fire (1987), Wong Jing's God of Gamblers (1989) and John Woo's The Killer (1989).

In 1992 Chow starred in John Woo's Hard Boiled, which marked their last major collaboration and Chow's calling card to Hollywood. Chow felt he had accomplished every thing he could in Hong Kong cinema, and that his roles were becoming limited to those in which he played the suited cop/killer. After filming Peace Hotel (1995), Chow took a two-year break from films to learn English, whereupon he moved to America to try his hand at American film stardom.

Unfortunately, Chow's move to Hollywood has not been such a great success. His American efforts The Replacement Killers (1998), Anna and the King (1999), and The Corruptor (1999) fared poorly with both critics and audiences. In 2000, Chow returned to Asia to appear in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which was received internationally with both critical and commercial success. Since then, Chow has appeared to slow down: he took another two-year break before making Bulletproof Monk (2003), which unfortunately did not share the critical or commercial success of Crouching Tiger. It has yet to be seen whether Chow will make it in Hollywood or return to Hong Kong, but he is certain to be remembered as one of the finest actors that the territory has ever produced. (JamesPercy 2003)