Kyaw Hein

Kyaw Hein (MY ကျော်ဟိန်း, ; born Kyaw Htay, 14 July 1947 – 11 July 2020) was a Burmese actor, film director and singer.

He is the five-time winner of the Myanmar Motion Picture Academy Awards.

He starred in and directed hundreds of films, and was considered one of the most important actors in Burmese cinema.

Kyaw Hein was born on July 14, 1947, on the Kyaung Kone Road in Sanchaung township.

His father was a retired District Police Chief named John Maung Sein (DYSP) and his mother was a housewife named Cho Cho.

He was the fourth child of six children.

At an early age he joined the Sein Goli gang.

In 1952 he was taught at an ABM school from first to fourth grade.

He failed the fourth grade exam and had to retake during the two summer holidays.

In 1956, he moved to the Ahlone Township.

He attended fifth grade at Unit Karen School near Home Road Station.

In 1957, he moved again within the township to the Cushion School and attended sixth grade, seventh grade (twice), eighth grade and failed ninth grade (twice), then decided to drop out.

In 1964 he had moved from various townships and in total transferred to 23 different Yangon Private schools (including night schools).

He later dropped out of school on 16 different occasions and became homeless.

In 1965, he moved to Kamaryut township.

He successfully passed ninth grade at Daw Thar Htet School.

In 1966, Dagon Township, Daw Nu Nu Khin helped Kyaw Hein enrol to the tenth grade, but he joined the Navy after only three months at his private school.

His ID number was 12205 and he left the Navy in 1967.

He returned to finish the tenth grade and passed.

He later entered the film industry.

In total he made and starred in over 222 films in 1967 to 2008 (over 41 years), 362 video films, and wrote fourteen songs and six books.

Kyaw Hein made his film debut with 1968's Hpuza Lanzon at age 20, but became widely known with his fourth film called Chit Tha-La Mon Tha-La.

In 1970 his wife Sandar entered the film industry and started her career as an actress.

In 1970, four years entering the film industry, he directed his first film Sein Shoet Mahote Sein (စိန်သို့မဟုတ်စိမ်). Kyaw Hein was also the lead designer and hand-painted the advertising poster under the pen name Nay Min Hteik Khaung (နေမင်းထိပ်ခေါင်).

He has played multiple roles, most notably in movies such as 1979's A-Ka Ga A-Chit A-Hnit Ga Myitta (အကာကအချစ်၊ အနှစ်ကမေတ္တ), 1982's Mun-Tet Chein Hma Ne Win Thi (မွန်းတည့်ချိန်တွင် နေဝင်သည်), 1989's Pan Myaing Le Ga U-Yin Hmu (ပန်းမြိုင်လယ်က ဥယျာဉ်မှူ),and 2003's Nay Ga Mway De La (နေကမွေးတဲ့လ). All the previously mentioned movies led him to win four National Actor Awards and one Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Motion Picture for a total of five Academy Awards.

He was later nationally praised for directing the movie 1982's Mun-Tet Chein Hma Ne Win Thi (မွန်းတည့်ချိန်တွင် နေဝင်သည်).

Kyaw Hein also wrote many short stories and some novels.

He was, at the time, the highest paid actor in television commercials.

He also collaborated with many Burmese Musicians and even produced some of his own.

The last film he directed was Kyaoe Taan (ကြိုးတန်).

An honorable mention of his movie 1985’s Kyaee Yaung Saungsaw Daung (ကျီးယောင်ဆောင်သောဒေါင်).

He retired in 2008, and became a Theravada Buddhist monk, with the Dharma name (ကိတ္တိသာရ).

On November 4, 2008, Kyaw Hein retired from the film industry and became a theravada monk.

Before becoming a monk, Kyaw Hein traveled all over Burma, calling it Kyaw Hein's last farewell visit.

In 2008 Sayadaw U Kittithara was one of the patron monks who helped the creation of the Bronze Buddha Image of Knowledge and Awareness at Botahtaung Pagoda in the Botataung Township, Yangon Region.

Some have referred to the temple as Kyaw Hein's temple after his contributions.

He died as a monk on July 11, 2020, in Canberra, Australia.

He was ordained a monk on July 11, 2020, at 9:27am Burmese Standard Time in Canberra.

He acquired the pseudonym Sayadaw U Kittithara as his proper name.

Many people have criticised him for holding sermons at monasteries without the time nor experience of learning buddhism as a monk.