Gu Yue (stage name)

Biography

Hu Xuecheng was born in Wuhan, Hubei in 1937 and became an orphan at age three, later fleeing to Guilin, Guangxi. He joined the People's Liberation Army in 1949 and began his career as a military cultural worker. He adopted the pen name "Gu Yue" by splitting his surname "Hu". His resemblance to Mao Zedong was discovered during the Cultural Revolution when a fellow passenger noticed his likeness to the painting "Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan". In 1978, he was selected as a special-type actor to portray Mao Zedong after attracting the attention of military officials, and was transferred to the August First Film Studio. He made his film debut in "The Xi'an Incident" in 1981 and went on to portray Mao Zedong in 84 film and television productions. He won the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actor for "The Ceremony of the Founding of the People's Republic of China" and "The Story of Mao Zedong". He was promoted to a civilian military rank in 2001. He died in 2005 at age 68 from a sudden heart attack while attending a film ceremony in Guangxi.