Mo Chou

Biography

Mo Chou, born Wang Lizhen, was a Hong Kong Mandarin film actress. Born in 1933 in Shanghai to a Suzhou family, her father was a silk merchant, and she was the seventh child. The family moved to Taiwan before liberation, where she married young and had two sons before divorcing and settling alone in Hong Kong. In 1959, she competed in the Miss Hong Kong pageant and placed third, which led to Shaw Brothers signing her to a three-year contract and giving her the stage name Mo Chou. She specialized in playing tragic and fallen women, but mostly received supporting or guest roles and did not achieve expected success. After leaving Shaw Brothers, she joined Dian Mau, where a semi-nude scene in the 1965 film Strange Tales of a Chinese Studio generated significant attention. In 1964, she was invited by Tian Nan Film Company to Taiwan, where she starred in her first and only leading role in the 1965 film The Bloody Newlywed Case. Tragically, she died on Christmas 1965 at age 32 after overdosing on sleeping pills and disinfectant, found unconscious in her Tsim Sha Tsui apartment and pronounced dead at Queen Elizabeth Hospital after over 30 hours of resuscitation.