Sir Run Run Shaw, one of the pioneers of the 20th century Chinese film industry, has died age 106.
Shaw, who co-founded the Shaw Brothers film studio with his brother Runme, had been involved in the film industry in Shanghai and Singapore since age 19.
The Shaw Brothers company was in its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s and was influential in both the Asian and Western film industries. He personally has credits on some 360 films, ranging from martial arts classics to Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner”.
The 760-title Shaw Bros. library is today operated by Hong Kong-based Celestial Pictures.
Shaw was also founder in 1967 of Television Broadcasts (TVB), Hong Kong’s dominant free-to-air broadcaster and still one of the major forces of content production and talent management in the region.
Born in 1907 in Ningbo, China as Shao Ren Leng, Shaw was one of six sons. He followed his third brother to Singapore to start the Shaw Organization – a company still bears that name today – and in the 1930s formed first the Tian Yi Film company in Shanghai and then the South Seas Film studio in Hong Kong.
After WWII and the upheavals in China of the late 1940s Hong Kong – and to a lesser extent Singapore – became the centers of the Chinese film industry. Shaw Studios was active in both places.
Between 1947 and 1972 Shaw and rival Cathay were dominant in the Singapore films industry, producing up to 20 films per year, and giving rise to the “golden era” of Singapore cinema, often also known as the “Studio Era”. While the producers were Chinese, Shaw typically employed directing talent from around the region to make his pictures.
That was a modus operandi that he repeated in Hong Kong when the rivalry with Golden harvest — formed by former Shaw employees Raymond Chow and Leonard Ho — was at its keenest. Though Shaw Bros. was very centralized and kept famously tight controls on its talent, Shaw frequently employed Japanese and Taiwanese directors, as well as giving many Hong Kong directors and actors their first breaks.
In later life Run Run Shaw, spent more time on charity and philanthropical activities. He endowed major three prizes for astronomy, mathematics and life and medical sciences.
Shaw received a knighthood from the British government in 1977 and was awarded Hong Kong’s top honor the Grand Bauhinia Medal from the new Hong Kong SAR government in 1998.
As recently as last month, he was honored in Hong Kong by the British Academy of Film & Television Arts, whose London headquarters is home to the Run Run Shaw Theatre.
Shaw’s birthday and his exact age have long been clouded in mystery — his widow Mona Shaw (aka Mona Fong) has often refused to clarify the issue — and other sources put his age at 107.
He died at 6.55am local time in Hong Kong on Jan 7, 2014.
