Li Ting

Biography

Li Ting was born in 1944 in Peking on Christmas Eve and was the fourth child in her family. Her father Li Shutang was a former Kuomintang official who later worked as an academic and writer. She moved to Hong Kong with her father in 1960 and in 1961 enrolled in the first class of Shaw Brothers' "Nan Guo Experimental Acting School," training alongside classmates such as Ching Peng and Chang Yan. During her studies, she participated in films including Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai and Da Ji. After graduating in 1963, she signed a seven-year contract with Shaw Brothers as a basic actress. Her first film was Shan Ge Lian in 1964, where she played the role of "Xiao Cui" but did not receive much attention. She began gaining recognition after appearing in Wan Gu Liu Fang in 1964. In 1964, she was cast in the lead role of E Yue He in Thailand after the original actress withdrew, starring opposite Zhang Chong, but the film performed poorly commercially, causing her decline in the company's rankings. She later starred as the lead in Mei Gui Wo Ai Ni in 1966 as "Zhuang Mei Gui," but she died on August 28, 1966, one month before the film's release, by suicide through hanging at the old Shaw Brothers dormitory at the age of 21.