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Statistics :
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Shing Fui On

 
 
 
 
Other names : 成奎安
Cheng Kui An
Cheng2 Kui2 An1
F. O. Shing
Shing Fai On
Shing Fooi On
Shing Quo On
Sing Fui On
David Tsui
 
Birthdate : 1/2/1955
Date of death : 27/8/2009
Nationality : Hong Kong
Workplace : Hong Kong
Activities : Actor (206), Brief appearance (10)

Biography

With his sinister mug, his huge stature (1.85 m) and bad manners, Shing Fui On was one of the most famous bad guys in the Hong Kong cinema during the 1980s and 1990s.

Those unfamiliar with Shing’s name will surely remember him as the merciless villain in John Woo’s The Killer.

Son of catholic peasants, Shing had a very poor childhood. He was born in a large family comprised of an older sister and five other brothers. Conditions at the time were hard: His siblings always fought for a bit of food or to get most of the blanket at night. Shing left school at 13 because his parents couldn’t afford the tuition fees anymore. His first job was at the studios of the Shaw Brothers. He started there as a laborer, then worked with props and later became assistant to cameramen while sometimes appearing in front of the camera as an extra.

Shing confessed his teens and his life as a young adult was that of a hooligan. At 17, he left the Shaw Bros. With three other local kids he worked as a bouncer in nightclubs in Mongkok. Fights after fights, Shing gained a reputation with the police. He was in gangs and a member of the triads. Involved in a sordid affair, he was sent four years in prison. He was arrested just before his first child was born. Shing was released two years later for good behavior and coming home he was greeted by his own son calling him a hooligan. He then vowed to turn his life around.

Shing went back to the entertainment industry and took on odd jobs on sets, from extra to assistant choreographer to Bruce Leung (who was a star of the RTV/ATV channel and a friend of his elder brothers). At the same period he was spotted by Danny Lee. At the end of the 1970s, Lee, a star from the Shaw Bros, was planning to launch his own production company.

Lee was looking for actors able to help him out before and behind the camera. Shing became then a recurrent supporting role and sometimes a technician in Lee’s early productions in the 1980s. He worked alongside Wong Ching, Kent Cheng, Lung Tin Sang, Tommy Wong Kwong Leung and Parkman Wong who all were known for their work at the Shaw Bros.

Shing himself thought his first genuine acting experience was on Lee’s The Law Enforcer (86) in which he had a pretty important role for the first time in his career. The experience for Shing was difficult albeit revealing. His acting skills were considered awful by Lee who kept shouting at him on the set. One day, Lee almost strangled him for Shing had just damaged the superb Porsche lent for the production.

Shing wasn’t handsomely paid for this part but he didn’t care as he knew success wasn’t far away after this role. He was right. His performance got him the HK Film Awards nomination for best supporting role. Since then, Shing was eternally grateful to Lee he considered his mentor.

Moviegoers and professionals gradually got used to Shing’s strange mug. He received more and more job offers and nine out of ten times he was the bad guy of the movie. His height (1.85 m), his boorish gait, his bad manners, his loud voice and threatening demeanor made him one of the most memorable and popular baddies in the HK cinema of the 1980s.

Shing was proud of this and was used to brag he was among the top four biggest bad guys of the HK cinema at the time, along with Roy Cheung, William Ho Ka Kui and Tommy Wong Kwong Leung. Indeed, them four were the perfect incarnation of the ultimate villains in the eyes of the local public.

Shing hit the jackpot with John Woo’s The Killer (1989), in which he faced Chow Yun Fat and Danny Lee. With this film Shing entered the very small club of the most hated bad guys. The audience was said to shout in anger and asked for his death during the screenings of The Killer because of what he did to the heroes.

In the movies, Shing had the habit to die in various atrocious manners after committing many awful deeds. Shing revealed that often, for economical reasons, producers refused to hire doubles for supporting roles and he ended up injured many times on the set of many productions.

Thanks to a few, albeit memorable, performances in films such as Liu Wai Hung’s Chase A Fortune (1985) or Ringo Lam’s Prison On Fire (1987), Shing was nicknamed Daai So or Big Crazy in Cantonese. In truth, he was already named Daai So when he was kid for he was a bit crazy.

This nickname stuck until he passed away. First a bit offensive, this name became a friendlier moniker. Shing attempted to escape this pigeonhole and tried some roles in comedies and also as a fatherly figure or even as a brave cop. In public, he was perceived as a simple and funny man.

Shing did a lot of films until the early 2000. First paid HKD 100 or 200 per film in his early career, later on he obtained between HKD 500 000 and HKD 1 million a part. Used to supporting roles, he sometimes managed to grab the limelight and appeared in the lead such as in Ivan Lai’s The Blue Jean Monster (1991)

With the decline of the HK film industry end of the 1990s, Shing looked for more TV work and tried to break into the huge Chinese mainland market. He was an actor at the TVB for a while before starting a new career in China. In the early 2000, Shing, who hired a mainland Chinese agent, had a great career going on, with TV series, commercials and even music. He released two or three hit songs on friendship and honor. Shing claimed he worked in 350 films and 600 TV series episodes in his whole career.

In the 1990s, Shing churned out many films and had a great lifestyle, although he barely appeared in any category 3 films, a hugely popular trend at the time. He was a big spender and provided for his family and friends and also parasites and starlets. He was even into the food business with restaurants in HK and in China. He acknowledged that at this time he was like a big boss. Connected, he helped some friends and actors out. Nick Cheung owes him a great deal. Shing became a kind of big brother for newcomers and protected them from the threat of the triads.

Despite fame and fortune, Shing has never forgotten his rural origins. At the peak of his career he was even elected mayor of the Nam Wei village in the Sai Kung district where he grew up. He even took part in the legislative elections in HK. Ambitious and willing to erase his past mistakes, Shing developed his image of a good lad close to the people, a fake bad guy of cinema and a good Christian who had redeemed himself. He appeared on popular TV shows and in charity gatherings.

A sportsman, Shing was also known in HK for taking part in car races, another of his passions with cinema. He raced in Macau, Thailand, Japan and many more Asian countries. He confessed that his experience in overseas races taught him that Chinese drivers had still many more things to learn. He owned up to six racing cars.

He was also in the football/soccer team composed of the HK film stars. There, he became a very close friend with the likes of Alan Tam, Eric Tsang, Law Kar Ying, Andy Lau and even Wan Chi Keung, an actor and former football star and the mentor of the team. Shing pretended to be an excellent goal keeper and when he couldn’t stop the ball, he was used to joke that Law Kar Ying was a bad defender.

In 2004, while shooting Wai Ka Fai’s Himalaya Singh, Shing had a nose bleed on the set. A medical check revealed that he had a nasopharyngeal carcinoma (a throat cancer) at an advanced stage. He was said to have only four months to live.

Eventually, Shing was miraculously saved by modern medicine yet was left very frail after his battle against the cancer. He had also spent all his fortune to fight a tumor the size of a chicken egg. People abandoned him too.

His illness helped him to find out clearly who his true friends were. Genuine but rare friends stayed by his side. Talking with Wan Chi Keung who suffered the same sickness, Shing said that he was broke and was worried for his family. Wan proposed to pay for his medical expenses.

A proud man, Shing didn’t dare to borrow money from his friends. He had to carry on working. But job offers were rare. He nonetheless got a few roles in films and in TV series. He was seen very affected by the illness in the Pang Bros’ The Detective (2007) and Cheung Chee Keong’s Bodyguard: A New Beginning (2008). Shing invested also more or less successfully in bar and restaurant businesses. He tried to lead a normal life despite the threat of a relapse.

Not devoid of a sense of humor, Shing liked to joke about cancer with his old friend Law Kar Ying, himself victim of this evil.

In spring 2009, the dreaded relapse happened. Shing was admitted in the ICU in July. His close friends came to visit him on his hospital bed -- they were Nick Cheung, Alan Tam and Eric Tsang. They all hoped for another remission but the miracle never happened.

Shing Fui On died in the Hong Kong Baptist Hospital on 27th August at 23:45.


VTL (August 2009) – translated by Thomas Podvin
Sources: Sina and Baidu


For more info on the nasopharyngeal carcinoma, visit the wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasopharyngeal_carcinoma
 
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Filmography
 [ 2000 - 1990 - 1980 - 1970 ] 
 Alternate lists by alpha / genre / year
 
Title    ( HK -  All )  Year Activity
 
 Bodyguard: A New Beginning 2008 Actor
 Detective, The 2007 Actor
 Himalaya Singh 2005 Actor
 Boxing Hero 2003 Actor
 Lethal Cop 2003 Actor
 My Troublesome Buddy 2003 Actor
 Story Of Long, The 2003 Actor
 Summer Vacation 2003 Actor
 Unarm 72 Hours 2003 Actor
 Chinese Orthopedist And The Spice Girls 2002 Actor
 Messing Passion 2002 Actor
 Mysterious Murder, A 2002 Actor
 Prison On Fire - Preacher 2002 Actor
 Killing End 2001 Actor
 Devil Shadow, The 2000 Actor
 MAFIA.COM 2000 Actor
 Gambler Series : Perfect Skill 1999 Actor
 Gambler Series : Rake Gambler 1999 Actor
 Lord Of Amusement, The 1999 Actor
 Love Story, A 1998 Actor
 Troublesome Night 3 1998 Actor
 You Light Up My Life 1998 Actor
 My Dad Is A Jerk 1997 Actor
 Walk In 1997 Actor
 18 Shaolin Golden Boy 1996 Actor
 Adventurous Treasure Island 1996 Actor
 Ebola Syndrome 1996 Actor
 Horrible High Heels 1996 Actor
 How To Meet The Lucky Stars 1996 Actor
 Sexy And Dangerous 1996 Actor
 Tristar 1996 Actor
 Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star 1996 Actor
 Young And Dangerous 1996 Brief appearance
 Candlelight's Woman 1995 Actor
 Case Of The Cold Fish, The 1995 Actor
 Enemy Shadow 1995 Actor
 Hong Kong Graffiti 1995 Actor
 Love Guns And Glass 1995 Actor
 Saint Of Gamblers, The 1995 Actor
 Thunderbolt 1995 Actor
 Twist 1995 Actor
 Ancient Chinese Whorehouse 1994 Actor
 Crucifixion, The 1994 Actor
 Dark Street Gigolo 1994 Actor
 Don't Shoot Me, I'm Just a Violinist! 1994 Actor
 Fearless Match 1994 Actor
 Hong Kong Adam's Family 1994 Actor
 Lady Punisher, The 1994 Actor
 Naked Rose 1994 Actor
 Reckless Barrister 1994 Actor
 Rock On Fire 1994 Actor
 To Live And Die In Tsimshatsui 1994 Actor
 Bogus Cop 1993 Actor
 Boys Are Easy 1993 Actor
 Chez N' Ham Story 1993 Actor
 Come Fly The Dragon 1993 Actor
 Crazy Love 1993 Actor
 Dancing Boy In Underworld Street, A 1993 Actor
 Drug Tiger 1993 Actor
 Eight Hilarious Gods, The 1993 Actor
 Legend Of The Liquid Sword 1993 Actor
 Shadow Cop 1993 Actor
 Untold Story, The 1993 Actor
 Wonderful Killer 1993 Actor
 Cheetah On Fire 1992 Actor
 Erotic Ghost Story 3 1992 Actor
 Fatal Chase 1992 Actor
 Forced Nightmare 1992 Actor
 Ghost Killer 1992 Actor
 Handsome Siblings 1992 Brief appearance
 Lady Killer 1992 Actor
 Night Life Hero 1992 Actor
 Night Rider, The 1992 Actor
 Rhythm Of Destiny 1992 Actor
 Rich Man 1992 Actor
 Sisters In Law 1992 Actor
 Sting, The 1992 Actor
 Twilight Of The Forbidden City, The 1992 Actor
 Unleaded Love, The 1992 Actor
 Vengeance Of Six Dragons 1992 Actor
 What A Hero ! 1992 Actor
 Who's Killer 1992 Actor
 All For The Gamblers 1991 Actor
 Angel Force 1991 Actor
 Blue Jean Monster, The 1991 Actor
 Devil's Vendetta 1991 Actor
 Don't Fool Me 1991 Actor
 Easy Money 1991 Actor
 Eternal Combat, An 1991 Actor
 Fist Of Fury 1991 1991 Actor
 Ghost For Sales 1991 Actor
 Heroic Brothers 1991 Actor
 Lucky Dragon 1991 Actor
 My Flying Wife 1991 Actor
 Queen Of The Underworld 1991 Actor
 Rascal's Tale, A 1991 Actor
 Red Shield 1991 Actor
 Return Of Evil Fox 1991 Actor
 Tigers, The 1991 Actor
 Today's Hero 1991 Actor
 Top Bet, The 1991 Actor
 Tricky Brains 1991 Brief appearance
 Vampire Kids 1991 Actor
 Against All 1990 Actor
 Brave Young Girls 1990 Actor
 Bullet To Survive 1990 Actor
 Chicken a la Queen 1990 Actor
 Day Of Thunder 1990 Actor
 Doctor Vampire 1990 Actor
 Family Honor 1990 Actor
 Gangland Odyssey 1990 Actor
 Ghostly Vixen 1990 Actor
 God Of Gamblers 2 1990 Actor
 It Takes Two To Mingle 1990 Actor
 Kung Fu Vs Acrobatic 1990 Brief appearance
 Legend Of The Dragon 1990 Actor
 Love Is Love 1990 Actor
 My Hero 1990 Actor
 No Risk, No Gain 1990 Actor
 Perfect Girls 1990 Actor
 Raid On Royal Casino Marine 1990 Actor
 Return To Action 1990 Actor
 Spooky Family, The 1990 Actor
 To Spy With Love 1990 Actor
 Triad Story 1990 Actor
 Unmatchable Match, The 1990 Actor
 When Fortune Smiles 1990 Actor
 Bachelor's Swan Song, The 1989 Actor
 Black Wall, The 1989 Actor
 Burning Ambition 1989 Actor
 Carry On Yakuza 1989 Actor
 China White 1989 Actor
 City Cops 1989 Actor
 City Kids 1989 Actor
 Club Girls 1989 Actor
 Crocodile Hunter 1989 Actor
 Fight To Survive 1989 Actor
 Fortune Code, The 1989 Actor
 God Of Gamblers 1989 Actor
 Just Heroes 1989 Actor
 Killer Angels 1989 Actor
 Killer, The 1989 Actor
 Little Cop 1989 Actor
 Mr. Smart 1989 Actor
 No Compromise 1989 Actor
 Operation Pink Squad 2 : The Hunted Tower 1989 Actor
 Perfect Match 1989 Actor
 Romancing Star 3, The 1989 Actor
 Running Mate 1989 Actor
 Satanic Crystals 1989 Actor
 Seven Warriors 1989 Actor
 Stars And Roses 1989 Actor
 Thank You, Sir 1989 Actor
 They Came To Rob Hong Kong 1989 Actor
 Three Against The World 1989 Actor
 Thunder Cops 2 1989 Actor
 Triads - The Inside Story 1989 Actor
 18 Times 1988 Actor
 Beloved Son Of God 1988 Actor
 Bet On Fire 1988 Actor
 Crazy Companies 2, The 1988 Actor
 Crazy Companies, The 1988 Actor
 Criminal Hunter, The 1988 Actor
 Diary Of A Big Man 1988 Actor
 Dragon Family, The 1988 Actor
 Dragons Forever 1988 Brief appearance
 Final Justice 1988 Actor
 Ghost In The House 1988 Actor
 Greatest Lover, The 1988 Actor
 He Who Chases After The Wind 1988 Actor
 Her Vengeance 1988 Actor
 Inspector Wears Skirts, The 1988 Actor
 Moon, Star, Sun 1988 Actor
 Return Of The Demon 1988 Actor
 Road Warriors 1988 Actor
 Three Wishes 1988 Actor
 Tiger On The Beat 1988 Brief appearance
 Truth, The 1988 Actor
 Better Tomorrow II, A 1987 Actor
 Brotherhood 1987 Actor
 Heartbeat 100 1987 Actor
 Killer's Nocturne 1987 Actor
 Prison On Fire 1987 Brief appearance
 Rich And Famous 1987 Actor
 Romancing Star, The 1987 Brief appearance
 To Err Is Humane 1987 Actor
 Tragic Hero 1987 Actor
 Trouble Couples 1987 Actor
 100 Ways To Murder Your Wife 1986 Actor
 Better Tomorrow, A 1986 Actor
 Brotherhood 1986 Actor
 First Vampire In China, The 1986 Actor
 Innocent Interloper, The 1986 Actor
 Law Enforcer, The 1986 Actor
 Legacy Of Rage 1986 Actor
 Magic Crystal 1986 Brief appearance
 My Heavenly Lover 1986 Actor
 Parking Service 1986 Actor
 Chase A Fortune 1985 Actor
 Cop Busters 1985 Actor
 Cop Of The Town 1985 Actor
 Crazy Romance 1985 Actor
 How are You My Friends 1985 Actor
 Isle Of Fantasy, The 1985 Actor
 Kung Hei Fat Choy 1985 Actor
 Why Me ? 1985 Actor
 Heaven Can Help 1984 Actor
 Law With Two Phases 1984 Actor
 Shanghai Blues 1984 Actor
 All The Wrong Spies 1983 Actor
 Oh ! My Cops ! 1983 Actor
 Play Catch 1983 Actor
 It Takes Two 1982 Actor
 Bomb-Shell, The 1981 Brief appearance
 Gambling For Head 1975 Actor
 Young Dragons, The 1975 Actor
 

 Article    Review    Poster/Gallery    DVD Captures    Trailer    DVD Captures/Trailer  
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Gallery
 
 Shing Fui On pictures :  (Hide)
Boxing Hero
Ebola Syndrome
How To Meet The Lucky Stars
Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star
Love Guns And Glass
Fearless Match
To Live And Die In Tsimshatsui
Rhythm Of Destiny
Sisters In Law
The Unleaded Love
All For The Gamblers
Easy Money
Ghost For Sales
Red Shield
The Blue Jean Monster
The Blue Jean Monster
The Blue Jean Monster
Against All
Gangland Odyssey
Ghostly Vixen
Perfect Girls
Burning Ambition
China White
City Cops
City Kids
Just Heroes
Mr. Smart
Stars And Roses
The Bachelor's Swan Song
The Fortune Code
The Killer
The Romancing Star 3
Triads - The Inside Story
Diary Of A Big Man
A Better Tomorrow II
Brotherhood
Brotherhood
Prison On Fire
Rich And Famous
The Romancing Star
To Err Is Humane
To Err Is Humane
Tragic Hero
A Better Tomorrow
A Better Tomorrow
Brotherhood
Legacy Of Rage
Magic Crystal
Cop Of The Town
Law With Two Phases
Shanghai Blues
All The Wrong Spies
The Bomb-Shell
The Young Dragons
 
 Other Shing Fui On pictures :  (Hide)
Bodyguard: A New Beginning (1)
Young And Dangerous (1)
Twist (1)
Fearless Match (1)
The Untold Story (1)
Rhythm Of Destiny (1)
Sisters In Law (1)
The Unleaded Love (1)
Who's Killer (2)
All For The Gamblers (2)
 
More pictures in the gallery
 
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