Leslie Cheung | |||||||||||||
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張國榮 | |||||||||||||
.jpg) A wax figure of Cheung | |||||||||||||
| Pronunciation | Cheung Kwok-wing[1] | ||||||||||||
| Born | Cheung Fat-chung 12 September 1956 | ||||||||||||
| Died | 1 April 2003 (aged 46) Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, China | ||||||||||||
| Resting place | Po Fook Hill, Sha Tin, New Territories | ||||||||||||
| Citizenship | |||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Leeds | ||||||||||||
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1977–2003 | ||||||||||||
| Height | 1.74 m (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in)[2][3] | ||||||||||||
| Partner | Daffy Tong (1990–2003) | ||||||||||||
| Musical career | |||||||||||||
| Also known as | Elder Brother (Chinese: 哥哥)[4][5][6] | ||||||||||||
| Genres | |||||||||||||
| Instrument | Vocals | ||||||||||||
| Labels | |||||||||||||
| Cheung Kwok-wing | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 張國榮 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 张国荣 | ||||||||||||
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| Cheung Fat-chung | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 張發宗 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 张发宗 | ||||||||||||
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| Signature | |||||||||||||
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Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing[A] (12 September 1956 – 1 April 2003), born Cheung Fat-chung, was a Hong Kong singer and actor. One of the most influential cultural icons in the Chinese world, Cheung was known for his debonair demeanor, flamboyant screen characters, and avant-garde, androgynous stage presence. Throughout his 26-year career, he released over 40 music albums and acted in 56 films.[7]
Born in Kowloon, British Hong Kong, Cheung studied in England since the age of 12 until he returned home in 1976. He garnered attention in 1977 when entering RTV's Asian Singing Contest and achieved popularity in 1984 with a hit single "Monica." Cheung is regarded as one of the founding fathers of Cantopop for defining the music genre in the 1980s.[8] He announced his "retirement" from music in 1989 and emigrated to Canada the following year, but returned to Hong Kong in 1994. His reemergence from the musical retirement in the late 1990s, particularly in his 1996 album Red, was marked by sonic experimentation and daring imagery.
In addition to music, Cheung achieved pan-Asian fame with such films as A Better Tomorrow (1986) and A Chinese Ghost Story (1987). He won the Best Actor at the 1991 Hong Kong Film Awards for his role in Days of Being Wild (1990), and became world-renowned for his performances in Farewell My Concubine (1993) and Happy Together (1997).
On 1 April 2003, Cheung, suffering from clinical depression, committed suicide by jumping off the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel, Hong Kong. In 2010, he was voted third of CNN's most iconic musicians of all time, after Michael Jackson and The Beatles.[9]
- ^ "Leslie Cheung profile". Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
- ^ "Leslie Cheung". IMDb. Archived from the original on 26 July 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
- ^ "張國榮的愛情故事 (Leslie Cheung's Romance Story) - Cheung claimed he was 5 ft 8.5 in tall". Leslie Cheung Cyberworld. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
- ^ Lisa Oldham Stokes (2007). Historical Dictionary of Hong Kong Cinema. Scarecrow Press. p. xxvii. ISBN 978-0-8108-5520-5.
- ^ "Sina Entertainment News" (in Chinese). Xinhua News Agency. 3 April 2008. Archived from the original on 4 November 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
- ^ "Sina Entertainment News". Sina Corp. Archived from the original on 20 June 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
- ^ Leung 2008, p. 85.
- ^ 李雯蕊. "'Elder brother': Leslie Cheung remembered". www.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
- ^ "Michael Jackson: Your number one music icon - CNN.com". www.cnn.com. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
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