Andy Lau Tak-Wah is a Hong Kong Cantopop star, movie actor and producer. He has been Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actor since the 1990s.
The first lead role that made his initial popularity was the TVB series Hunting in 1982. In the same year, Andy acted in his first movie Once Upon a Rainbow. 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.
Started career as a TV actor.
Once a side kick of Yun-Fat Chow. They made 4 movies together: Ying hung ho hon (1987), Gong woo ching (1987), Du shen (1989) and Dou hap (1991). They also made two TV series together: "Yang ka cheung" (1986) and "Sou hat yi" (1982).
Named as "Four Kings" of Hong Kong pop-music industry with Jacky Cheung, Leon Lai and Aaron Kwok in the early 90s.
He was one of the "5 Tigers" in TVB with Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Felix Wong (I), Kiu Wai Miu, and Ken Tong in the 1980s.
Has the most awards won by a male Cantonese pop artist, as of April 2000 he had 292 awards.
(As of 2003) Since 1992 he has appeared in concert 179 times.
He and Tony Leung Chiu Wai made 6 movie together: A Fei zheng chuan (1991), Fan dou ma liu (1992), Haomen yeyan (1991), Wu hu jiang zhi jue lie (Jin pai wu hu jiang) (1991), Mou gaan dou III: Jung gik mou gaan (2003) and Zhong Huan ying xiong (1991). They also starred together in two short-lived tv-series: "Yang ka cheung" (1986) and "Luk ding gei" (1984).
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.
Awarded honorary fellow member by the Hongkong Academy of Performing Arts (HKAPA). Past recipients of the honor include Yun-Fat Chow, John Woo (I) and 'Anthony Wong (IX)'.
Is skilled in the Chinese calligraphy.
Lau was awarded the Asian Filmmaker of the Year in the 2006 Pusan International Film Festival in Busan (formerly Pusan), Korea. He received the award after initiating a project Focus First Cuts to finance films from fledging Asian directors. One of the 6 films, the black comedy Fengkuang de shitou (2006) (aka Crazy Stone), has gone on to become to date the second top-grossing film in China this year.
