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Leslie Cheung
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Leslie Cheung

Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing (Traditional Chinese: 張國榮; Simplified Chinese: 张国荣; pinyin: Zhāng Guóróng, WG: Chang Kuo-jung) (September 12, 1956 - April 1, 2003) was a Cantopop singer and the star of several Hong Kong movies. His fans passionately called him Gor-gor (哥哥, "elder brother" in Cantonese), started by Joey Wong in A Chinese Ghost Story.

He was born the youngest of 10 children. His parents divorced when he was young. He studied at Leeds University in northern England. In 1976 he took second prize at ATV Asian Music Contest.

His successful albums include The Wind Blows On (1983) Monica (1984) Summer Romance (1987) Hot Summer (1988) Virgin Snow (1988) Leslie '89 (1989) Final Encounter (1989)Most Beloved (1995) Red (1996) Printemps (1997) and Heat (2000)

Together with Chow Yun-Fat, he starred in John Woo's action movie A Better Tomorrow (1986) and made his mark as Kit Sung, a righteous young cop tortured by his brother's crime boss background. In Stanley Kwan's Rouge (1987), he played an opium-smoking playboy against Anita Mui's courtesan Fleur. The film supposedly cemented his life-long friendship with his fellow pop star. Leslie teamed up with Woo and Chow Yun-Fat again in Once a Thief (1990) as Jim, a "brother" of Chow's Joe. In the 1991 Hong Kong Film Awards, he won a Best Actor Award for his performance as Yuddy in the Wong Kar-wai-directed "Days of Being Wild" (1990).

He left the music business in 1990 and immigrated to British Columbia, Canada at the peak of his career after he had reached superstar status in Hong Kong. He was the first one ever in Cantopop history having a retirement concert, and these concerts ran for 33 consecutive nights at the famed Hong Kong Coliseum although he had continued to play in movies. In 1992, he gained Canadian citizenship and soon returned to Hong Kong and his film career after the long hiatus. After much struggle, he recorded his first album after his retirement concert and "Most Beloved" was released in 1995.

Cheung was one of few Hong Kong actors who dared to take on openly gay roles. He was well known for his movie, Farewell, My Concubine (1993). In it, he portrayed a Dan player (one who plays female roles) in Chinese opera who falls in love with his fellow male performer. Farewell, My Concubine shared the Palme d'Or with The Piano in 1993 in the Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. In Wong Kar-wai's "Happy Together" (1997), Leslie played another gay role, Ho Po-wing, which got him nominations for Best Actor in both the Golden Horse Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards.

He committed suicide in Hong Kong on April 1, 2003 by jumping from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. He was 46 years old. He left a note saying he had been suffering from depression, the causes of which are unknown.

Despite the scare of SARS, many of Cheung's fans from around the world flew to Hong Kong to attend his memorial service on April 5, 2003. Cheung's family urged the tabloids to let Cheung rest in peace. During Cheung's twenty-six year career, the tabloids had reported numerous rumors about Cheung's sexual orientation and his relationship with Mr. Tong Hok-Kak, later to be his partner for 20 years. This suggests that he indeed was gay and he finally affirmed these rumors in 1997 as well as his recent film roles as gay characters, after a tabloid caught a snapshot of him and Mr. Tong holding hands together in 1995. In 2001, he admitted of his bisexual orientation during an interview with TIMEasia magazine.

Filmography

See also: Cinema of China

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