Cho Tat Wah

Biography

Cho Tat Wah was a Hong Kong Cantonese film actor active from the 1950s to the 1960s, known as the "Iron Man of the Silver Screen" and a specialist in martial arts hero roles. At just 15 years old, he went alone to Shanghai to act in the silent film "The Hero of the Northeast" (關東大俠), beginning his acting career. In 1936, he returned to Hong Kong to film "The Shandong Bandit" (山東響馬), and in 1939 he starred in "The Virtuous Woman" (烈女行). After the War of Resistance against Japan, he founded the Union Film Company and produced a series of martial arts films such as "Seven Swords and Thirteen Knights" (七劍十三俠). Among his over 700 films, about 200 were martial arts films, along with detective and spy films. From 1949 to 1965, he played Leung Foon, the top disciple of Wong Fei-hung, in over 70 Wong Fei-hung films, and played Lung Kim-fei in his famous "Buddha's Palm" (如來神掌) series, earning him the nicknames "Detective Wah" and "Inspector Cho." He was also called "Uncle Wah" after filming "Aces Go Places," and most people called him that after his retirement. From the 1970s to 2004, he intermittently filmed TV series for CTV, RTV/ATV, and TVB, including "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" (1976), "Reincarnated," "Dragon Saber," "The Young Wong Fei-hung," and "The Twin Brothers." In 1960, he owned over a million in assets and half a street's worth of properties, was the owner of the Union Film Studio, and was the first person in Hong Kong to own a Dodge automatic car, but he lost everything gambling in Macau. In 1990, he accepted his only disciple On Tak-chun, retired the same year, and emigrated to the UK with his family. He returned to Hong Kong in 1993 to film TV dramas, went back to the UK in 1997 due to his wife's kidney disease, and returned to Hong Kong again in 2000 after his wife passed away. In August 2006, he fell down the stairs at his residence and was hospitalized for two months. In 2001, he received the Golden Bauhinia Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, and in 2003 he received the Professional Spirit Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards alongside Shek Kin, and was invited to the Avenue of Stars handprint ceremony. He passed away on January 10, 2007, in the UK.