Leslie Cheung

Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing (12 September 1956 – 1 April 2003) was a Hong Kong singer and actor.

Born Cheung Fat-chung in Kowloon, British Hong Kong, Cheung studied in England from the age of 12 until returning to Hong Kong in 1976 to pursue a career in show business.

After one year of study, in 1976, he returned to Hong Kong when his father became paralysed on one side of the body after a stroke.

As the father wanted all of his children to be at home, Cheung abandoned his study and became a salesman for Levi's for a living.

Cheung recalled that during this time, "I had no plans; there I was, feeling like I was hanging in the middle of nowhere."

Upon returning to Hong Kong, Cheung went back to high school as a mature student and formed a band, where he was the lead singer, with his classmates.

Throughout a 26-year career from 1977 until his death, Cheung released over 40 music albums and acted in 56 films.

In May 1977, the band members signed up individually for Rediffusion Television (RTV)'s Asian Singing Contest.

He was one of the most prominent pioneers that shaped the identity of Cantopop during the 1980s and became known for his flamboyant, often outrageous stage appearance.

Cheung's continued success with a string of hit albums in the mid- and late-1980s, most notably 1987 best-seller Summer Romance, won him numerous awards, including Most Popular Male Artist at the 1988 and 1989 Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards.

In addition to music, Cheung had breakthrough film roles as a disillusioned teenager in Nomad (1982) and as a police officer torn between justice and brotherhood in A Better Tomorrow (1986).

He achieved wide popularity with his 1984 self-titled album and its single "Monica", whose upbeat dance production introduced a new popular trend to Cantopop in addition to the contemporary pool of sentimental ballads.

He announced his "retirement" from music and emigrated to Canada in 1989, but remained active in his burgeoning acting career.

His venture into acting in the 1990s was recognised for his portrayal of gay characters in a then-conservative film industry.

His career was marked with both praise and criticism, with numerous public discussions focusing on his sexual orientation and androgynous persona.

Cheung achieved widespread recognition as an actor in the 1990s.

He played a womaniser longing for the return of his estranged mother in Days of Being Wild (1990), which won him Best Actor at the 1991 Hong Kong Film Awards.

His comeback as a recording artist in the late 1990s, particularly with his 1996 album Red, was noted for sonic experimentation and extravagant, graphic imagery.

His role as a gay Peking opera actor in Farewell My Concubine (1993) catapulted him to prominence in the western world.

Cheung's reputation as a bisexual celebrity consolidated with his role in the 1997 drama Happy Together, a film explicitly depicting a gay male relationship.

He was awarded the Golden Needle Award, the highest distinction of the RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards, in 1999.

In 2000, he was honoured as "Asia's Biggest Superstar" at the CCTV/MTV Music Honours in mainland China.

Cheung died by suicide by jumping off the 24th floor of the hotel Mandarin Oriental on 1 April 2003, having been diagnosed with severe clinical depression.

In 2010, Cheung was voted one of the top five most iconic musicians of all time in a poll conducted by CNN, alongside the likes of Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Elvis Presley and Bob Marley.

Cheung was born Cheung Fat-chung in Kowloon, British Hong Kong, the youngest of 10 children in a middle-class Hakka family.

His father, Cheung Wut-hoi, was a well-known tailor specialised in suits whose customers included Western celebrities such as film director Alfred Hitchcock and actors Marlon Brando and Cary Grant.

Despite his father's reputation in the fashion industry, Cheung was uninspired by the profession.

Cheung told many interviewers that he had an unhappy childhood, feeling emotionally estranged from his father and siblings, and frequently witnessing arguments and fights in the household.

He felt "depressed sometimes" and longed for affection from his parents who were absent from home most of the time in his childhood.

His father's abusive treatment of his mother had a lasting effect on Cheung's perspectives on marriage.

When Cheung's father married another woman, his emotional life further deteriorated.

He was brought up by his grandmother, whom he was very close with.

Cheung summed up his upbringing as a "silent resentment" with "nothing worth remembering", except for the death of his grandmother when he was in primary school, which was the "one thing that I do remember about my childhood."

Cheung attended Rosaryhill School for secondary education in Hong Kong and, at age 12, enrolled at an independent boys boarding school Eccles Hall School Quideham near Norwich in England.

During his time at Rosaryhill, Cheung did poorly academically, but he excelled in the English language.

He discovered a newfound interest in Western films and immersed himself in music, studying the original soundtrack of Romeo and Juliet.

When in England, he recalled that there were "racial problems", but managed to make friends.

During weekends, he worked as a bartender and would sometimes do amateur singing at his relatives' restaurant in Southend-on-Sea.

He came across the film Gone with the Wind and chose Leslie as his English name inspired by the actor Leslie Howard, feeling that "The name can be a man's or woman's, it's very unisex."

Cheung attended the University of Leeds, where he studied textile management.