Raymond Chow
Raymond Chow Man-wai, (; 8 October 1927 – 2 November 2018) was a Hong Kong film producer, and presenter. He was responsible for successfully launching martial arts and the Hong Kong cinema onto the international stage. As the founder of Golden Harvest, he produced some of the biggest stars of the martial arts film genre, including Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Jimmy Wang Yu and Tsui Hark. Early life. Of Hakka Han ethnicity, Chow studied martial arts under the Hung Ga master Lam Sai-wing. He attended Saint John's University, Shanghai, and graduated with a B.A in  journalism in 1949. In 1951, he joined the Voice of America office in Hong Kong. Career. Chow's film career began in 1958. He was the head of publicity and the production chief of Shaw Brothers between 1958 and 1970. He leased Cathay's studio and contracted its exhibition chain of 104 cinema theatres in Southeast Asia. At the time Cathay was a predominant force in the Malaysian film industry. Chow married Felicia Yuen Hei-wah (袁曦華) and they had a daughter Roberta Chow (鄒重珩) in 1963. Chow also had an affair with a media writer Ng Suk-fong (伍淑芳 ), with pen name of Lan Yan (藍茵). Ng gave birth to his illegitimate son Felix Chow (鄒重珏) in 1960, followed by a second son Terence Chow (鄒重瑾), in 1963. However Chow was unable to give Ng and their illegitimate children any legitimacy due to his marriage to Yuen, chose to separate with them but continued with financial support. Ng died of illness in 1967 and her two sons were raised by her sister. When Cathay wanted to end the company's association in Hong Kong, Chow left Shaw Brothers to establish Golden Harvest along with film producer Leonard Ho in  1970. He capitalised on the shortcomings of Shaw Brothers, who had a system that limited creativity, and was able to lure Bruce Lee into Golden Harvest, making it a serious competitor to Shaw Brothers. Under Chow's leadership, Golden Harvest would become the cornerstone for Hong Kong cinema leading Hong Kong box office sales for two decades from the 1970s to 1980s. Whilst Chow is credited with producing many films, in the audio commentary for the UK release of "Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain", Tsui Hark was asked the elementary question of Chow's role as a film producer , explained that this credit is mostly meaningless. Tsui stated that any producer's role at the studio was often nothing more than to greenlight and ensure funding of the project, and that producers such as Chow would rarely, if ever, set foot on the set during the making of the film. Raymond Chow officially announced his retirement in Hong Kong on 5 November 2007. Death. On 2 November 2018, Chow died in Hong Kong. He was survived by a daughter with his late wife and two sons with his late mistress.