Lim Kay Tong

Lim Kay Tong (born 10 July 1954) is a Singaporean film, television and stage actor.

He played founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1965, a film that was shot to celebrate Singapore's Golden Jubilee.

Growing up, Lim's parents introduced him to plays, literature, and all things artistic from the many books around their house.

Lim's father, a radiologist, wanted him to become a barrister, but was supportive of his acting dreams.

Educated at Anglo-Chinese School and a boarding school in England, Lim was a national rugby player in his youth, playing the wing-forward position.

While serving National Service, Lim earned a Singapore Armed Forces Colours award for his accomplishments in rugby.

In 1974, he starred in Robert Yeo's landmark play, Are You There, Singapore? for the Experimental Theatre Club.

In 1975, Lim moved to East Riding of Yorkshire, England, to further his education.

His other initial acting roles were in the plays Equus (1975) and Marching Song (197?) for the University Drama Society and One Mad Night (1975) for the Stage Club.

He graduated from the University of Hull in 1978 with a Bachelor of Acts (Honours) in English and Drama, where the late Anthony Minghella was his contemporary and tutor.

In 1980, he earned a diploma in Acting from the Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

In England, he had several bit parts for the BBC's Doctor Who and The Chinese Detective series.

In between these walk-on roles, Lim took on odd jobs like window washing, being a night janitor and washing dishes to earn extra money.

Lim's acting career began on the stage, when he auditioned for a production while being bored during National Service.

In the late 1980s, Lim spent a few years in Los Angeles, landing roles in Off Limits (1988) and It Could Happen to You (1994).

He found the city "very cutthroat and very fake. I didn't like the obsession with showbiz there. It wasn't like living a normal life in a normal city. I knew it was tough before I went, but I also knew if I stayed any longer my soul would be destroyed. The truth is that you had to be in the racial majority to get the parts."

Lim also confessed that he's "not one for schmoozing. My career would have been severely hampered if I had hung out there."

Upon his return from England, Lim played the lead role in the Experimental Theatre Club's Terry Rex (1982).

The Straits Times' Minu Tharoor praised his Terry, writing, "Stage presence is too cliché a term for the imaginative energy with which Kay Tong took control of the play, the stage and his part".

For his performance, Lim clinched the Singapore Drama Festival Best Actor Award.

In the same year, Lim began his career as a journalist with The Straits Times.

While covering the arts, Lim continued acting in plays like David Henry Hwang's F.O.B. (Fresh Off Boat) (1982), Chandran Lingam's The Nuns (1983) and Abigail's Party (1983), for which his "marvellously taut performance" was praised by The Singapore Monitor's Yap Koon Hong.

Lim's entry into film began in 1984, when he auditioned for the New York casting agent of Year of the Dragon (1985) in Singapore.

In 1985, Lim tried his hand at directing with David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, retitled Paradise Heights, for the Drama Festival.

The Straits Times' Rebecca Chua found that Lim's debut as director "displayed some uncertainty".

In the same year, Lim resigned from The Straits Times to set up TheatreWorks in February.

TheatreWorks, the first adult professional theatre company in Singapore, was formed to "promote theatre that is relevant to Singaporeans" and create work for English-language actors.

Lim served as the company's press and media relations consultant, in addition to acting in several of their plays.

Lim also acted in the English-language versions of Kuo Pao Kun's influential plays The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole (1985) and No Parking on Odd Days (1986).

Notably, he starred opposite Sean Penn in Shanghai Surprise (1986), Pierce Brosnan in Noble House (1988) and Claire Danes in Brokedown Palace (1999), and was the lead actor in Growing Up (1996–2001) and Perth (2004).

Lim has been called "Singapore's finest actor", "Singapore's best-known actor" and Singapore's answer to thespians Ian McKellen and Alec Guinness.

Lim is a co-founder and board member of TheatreWorks.

Lim was unsuccessful, but the casting agent remembered him and recommended him for Shanghai Surprise (1986).

Lim also got the role of an interrogator in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987), but had to give up the role due to a scheduling conflict.

Both productions travelled to the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 1987.

Of the role he originated in The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole, Lim remembers: "For me, [a one-man show] was panic stations. I had never done a long monologue. In drama school, we had to prepare monologues based on a Shakespearean character. Nothing like this, which was 30 to 35 minutes long. And [Kuo] spent at least a couple of weeks just talking to me. I was worried. Because I thought, when is he going to get down to it?"

In preparation, Kuo and Lim visited a coffin-maker and discussed the nature of funerals while Lim memorised the script.

Although the film was not critically acclaimed, it gave Lim the break to star in films like Keys to Freedom (1988) and Fifty/Fifty (1992).

Returning to Singapore for good in 1994, Lim starred in MediaCorp's award-winning TV programme Growing Up (1996–2001), set in 1960s and 1970s Singapore.

His "outstanding portrayal" as the family patriarch led him to be named by The Straits Times as one of the top ten dads on TV in 2013.