HONG KONG — Legendary Hong Kong film producer Raymond Chow, who introduced the world to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan and even brought the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the big screen, has died at age 91.
Hong Kong’ secretary for commerce and economic development, Edward Yau, said in a statement Friday that Chow “helped nurture a pool of Hong Kong talents and brought them to the international stage.”
Chow was a journalist who became a publicist for Shaw Brothers Studios, which churned out hundreds of films and popularized the kung fu genre. Studio founder Run Run Shaw soon moved Chow to the production side of the business after Chow complained that the movies – made on low budgets and short schedules – weren’t good enough.
“I said I did not think I could keep my job because the pictures were so bad,” Chow told Asiaweek magazine in 1983. Frustrated with Shaw Brothers’ assembly-line ethic, he created his own production company, Golden Harvest, in 1970.
He soon outmaneuvered his gigantic old employer to grab the actor who would become synonymous with kung fu movies. Chow signed Bruce Lee in 1971 after seeing him on a Hong Kong television variety show.
“Facing you on the screen, you feel his presence is very strong, very powerful,” Chow said in 2005.
Golden Harvest signed Lee to a three-picture deal, with each breaking all Hong Kong box office records.
Those movies were followed by “Enter the Dragon,” the first Chinese martial arts film to be produced by a major Hollywood studio, Warner Bros.
It cost $500,000 and earned $40 million at the box office. Tragically, Lee died days before the film’s release in 1973.
Lee’s death left a void for kung fu heroes in Hong Kong’s film industry that young performers were eager to fill. Chow signed one of them, a former stuntman named Jackie Chan, in 1979.
Chan’s first taste of success in Hong Kong had come the year before with the film “Drunken Master.” After signing with Chow, he made a number of increasingly popular Chinese-language action-comedy movies that made him a superstar in Asia.
Chow invested plenty of time and effort introducing Chan to Western audiences. He arranged for Chan to spend time in Los Angeles learning English and star in his first English-language film, 1980’s “The Big Brawl,” which flopped. A year later, Chow gave him a minor role alongside top Hollywood names in “The Cannonball Run.” But it was 1995’s “Rumble in the Bronx” that catapulted Chan to worldwide fame. The film was released on 1,700 screens in North America and grossed $32.4 million, becoming the most successful Hong Kong film released in the U.S.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.