Who is Stephen Chow?
Stephen Chow is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker/producer, who is perhaps still best known to the world as Mighty Steel Leg Sing in the popular action comedy film “Shaolin Soccer” (2001). Furthermore, he is also known for his work on the films “Kung Fu Hustle” (2004), and “CJ7” (2008), in addition to other projects on which he has worked so far in his career.
Stephen Chow Wiki- Age, Childhood, and Education
Born as Sing-Chi Chow on the 22nd June 1962, in Hong Kong, he assumed the name Stephen later in his career. He is the middle child and only son in the family, with a younger sister named Chow Sing Ha, and an older sister, Chow Man Kei.
His parents are Ling Po Yee and Chow Yik Sheung. His name Sing-chi comes from the essay “Preface to the Prince of Teng’s Pavilion”, written by poet Wang Bo. Stephen’s parents divorced early in his childhood, and from then on he was raised by his mother. He went to Heep Who Primary school, a missionary school of the Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China, in Kowloon Peninsula. After this, he enrolled at San Marino Secondary School, where one of his classmates was Lee Kin-yan, now an accomplished actor. Following his matriculation, he became a student of Television Broadcast Limited (TVB) acting classes.
Career Beginnings
Stephen’s career started in the early ‘80s with minor roles in Chinese productions, including “Nui wor hang dong” (1981), while two years later he was in the TV series “The Legend of the Condor Heroes”. Throughout the ‘80s Stephen was making a name for himself in Chinese films, winning the Taiwan Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the film “Final Justice”, co-starring Danny Lee, Stephen, and Ka-Kui Ho”. With the ‘90s, his popularity in China soared, and Stephen appeared in more than 40 films – one of the most popular was “Fight Back to School” (1991), which became Hong Kong’s top-grossing film of all time.
Three years later he directed and starred in the film “From Beijing with Love”, and the same year starred in the comedy film “Love on Delivery” with Christy Chung and Man-Tat Ng, while in 1995 he was the lead star of the horror-comedy film “Out of the Dark”. The following year, Stephen starred in the action-fantasy film “The God of Cookery”, and before the decade ended, appeared with Jackie Chan in the action-comedy film “Gorgeous” in 1999.
Rise to Stardom
Stephen was becoming more popular with every new film, which created the Stephen Chow Phenomenon. With the start of the new millennium, Stephen became more focused on directing, but still starred in a few successful projects.
His most prominent role came in 2001 when he portrayed Mighty Steel Leg Sing in the film “Shaolin Soccer”, which he also wrote and directed, while his co-stars included Man-Tat Ng, Wei Zhao, and Yin Tse as the main antagonist, among other stars of the Chinese cinematography. He was Sing in the film “Kung Fu Hustle” in 2004, and Ti in the film “CJ7”, before retiring from acting in 2010.
Writing and Directing
In addition, Stephen is an accomplished writer and director. His directorial debut was the highly acclaimed film “From Beijing with Love” in 1994 and since then he has worked on more than 10 films. Some of the titles include “Forbidden City Cop”, “King of Comedy” (1999), then “Kung Fu Hustle” (2004), “Journey to the West” (2013), and his most recent accomplishment “The New King of Comedy” (2019).
What Happened to Stephen Chow and Where Is He Now?
In 2016 Stephen became the ninth top-grossing Hollywood director, and his film “The Mermaid” broke numerous box office records. The film became the highest-grossing film of all time in China, and has grossed over $550 million worldwide so becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time in Asia. His newest release is the film “The New King of Comedy” (2019), while he is now working on the animated film “The Monkey King”, which is currently in post-production. He has said that he left acting as he feels that he now has more control over films when he is directing it, rather than when he is acting in a film.
Stephen Chow Net Worth, Height, Weight, and Appearance
Stephen is one of the most popular Chinese actors, and his wealth has grown accordingly. Sources have estimated Stephen Chow’s net worth at $30 million as of mid-2020.
Stephen Chow stands at 5′ 8½ (1.74m) tall, while he weighs approximately 152lbs ~ 69kgs. His vital statistics are unknown, but he still maintains an athletic figure with close to perfect measurements despite his age. He has black hair and brown eyes.
Stephen Chow Personal Life, Dating, Marriage, Wife, Children?
Stephen is a very private person, but that hasn’t stopped the media from creating rumors about him, especially regarding his love life, but he has remained quiet about them all. One known fact about him is that he isn’t married, but his love life is rather rich. For 10 years he was in a relationship with Yu Wen-Feng, who is the youngest daughter of Yu Ching Po, founder of Kumagai Gumi (Hong Kong), now known as Hong Kong Construction Holdings. Yu is ten years younger Stephen, but that didn’t stop their romance from blooming for a decade before it ended. Back in the ‘90s, he was in a relationship with actress and singer Karen Mok – the two worked together on five films, including “The God of Cookery” (1996), among others.
Following his split from Yu Wen-Feng, Stephen started a relationship with Alice Yu Man-Fung, but that ended after a couple of years, after which Alice sued Stephen for HK$80 million, claiming a share of the property they bought and owned together during their relationship.
Since their breakup, Stephen has been single and focused on his career. However, one of the recent rumors was that he is the father of actress Cecilia Cheung’s third child, and yet another one is that he is getting married. Nevertheless, his agent has stated that all these rumors are fake, and even Cecilia denied the rumor by saying that her third son’s father is Caucasian.