Ray Lui

Ray Lui (1956-    ) is a famous actor of Hong Kong television and films.

Born on December 22, 1956 in Hai Phong, Vietnam, Ray Lui is the third eldest in a family of five children.  He is of Hoa descent.  Due to the Vietnam War, Ray Lui and his family moved to Hong Kong in 1967.  His breakthrough role was in the 1980 TVB-produced Hong Kong television series, The Bund, as Ting Lik costarring Chow Yun-Fat and Angie Chiu.  He would reprise his role in The Bund II (1980) and The Bund III (1980-1981).  Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Ray Lui would be one of the most popular heartthrobs of Hong Kong cinema and television.  He has starred in many other Hong Kong television series including The Old Miao Myth (1983), The Rough Ride (1985), The Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain (1985), Twilight of a Nation (1988), Book and Sword, Gratitude and Revenge (2002), Seven Swordsmen (2006), Born Rich (2009), All Men Are Brothers (2011), The Han Triumph (2011) and Legend of Yuan Empire Founder (2012).  Ray Lui has also starred in many Hong Kong-produced films including Health Warning (1983), Walk on Fire (1988), To Be Number One (1991), The Great Conqueror's Concubine (1994), The Suspect (1998), Flash Point (2007), Death and Glory in Changde (2010), The Founding of a Party (2011), 7 Assassins (2013) and Firestorm (2013).  To his Vietnamese fans, he is known as Lu Luong Vy.  Ray Lui was was one of the most popular leading men of Hong Kong cinema and television throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Yang Xiaojuan and Ray Lui

Ray Lui has been married three times.  His first marriage was to Hong Kong actress Kathy Chow in 1988 which lasted only five months.  His second marriage was to actress Cally Kwong in 1996 which lasted only six months.  Since 2001, Ray Lui has been married to actress Yang Xiaojuan.  The two are proud parents of a son, Lui Sin-yeung.

It should be noted that Ray Lui is the very first leading man of Hong Kong cinema and television of Vietnamese-Hoa origin.  Right around the same time Ray Lui had turned into a major celebrity in Hong Kong with his breakthrough role as the lead actor in the television hit series for TVB, The Bund, the very first actress of Vietnamese-Hoa origin, Yung Jing-Jing (later known as Mary Jean Reimer) would also come onto the scene as a regular cast member with a significant role on the popular TVB teenage drama series, Encore, costarring Leslie Cheung.  By the time she matured into adulthood and ascended to become a leading lady of Hong Kong cinema in her most famous role in the film, Little Dragon Maiden (1983), she would abruptly announce her retirement from the film industry the following year to start a family after marrying veteran martial arts film actor/filmmaker Lau Kar-Leung.  Therefore, Mary Jean Reimer's reign as the first actress of Vietnamese-Hoa origin to become a major star in Hong Kong cinema was only a short lived one.  A decade later, former Miss Chinese International Beauty Pageant Titleholder Christy Chung, who is Canadian-born and of Vietnamese and Hoa descent, would burst onto the Hong Kong cinematic scene becoming one of its most popular leading ladies.  Unlike Mary Jean Reimer, Christy Chung managed to sustain longevity as a major star in Hong Kong cinema for nearly 15 years.  However, Christy Chung's length of time in the spotlight could still not compare to Ray Lui's enduring career in films and television which has lasted nearly 40 years and continues to this day.      

Link(s):

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