Andy Lau

In 1981, Lau enrolled in the artist training program offered by TVB, marking the beginning of his acting career.[1] It was his portrayal of the lead role in the 1982 TVB series The Emissary that initially propelled him to fame. Lau's popularity further soared in 1983 with his role as Yang Guo in the TVB wuxia series The Return of the Condor Heroes. Following this breakthrough, he went on to assume numerous lead roles in various TVB series.

In September 1983, TVB aimed to improve their variety show ratings in competition with Korea and Japan by producing the show TVB All-star challenge (星光熠熠勁爭輝). The program featured almost the entire lineup of the most popular actors and singers at that time.[13] Lau, alongside Tony Leung, Michael Miu, Felix Wong, and Kent Tong became known as the "Five Tiger Generals of TVB" due to their popularity on the show.[13]

In the late '80s, Lau departed from TVB due to contract disputes. TVB insisted on a binding five-year exclusive contract, which Lau declined to sign, leading to his blacklisting by the network. Consequently, Lau shifted his focus towards his film career.[6]

In 1981, Lau made a guest appearance in one of Susanna Kwan's music videos and caught the eye of the manager Teddy Robin.[14] Teddy Robin then gave Lau a chance to play a small role in the film, Once Upon a Rainbow.[14] This was the first step in Lau's film acting career.[14] He landed a role in Ann Hui's 1982 film, Boat People.[1] Later in 1983, he had his first leading role in the Shaw Brothers-produced action film, On the Wrong Track.[15]

One of his early leading roles included the more serious 1988 film, The Truth. However, Lau is best known in films for his (often) recurring roles as a "Heroic Gangster", such as Wong Kar-wai's 1988 film As Tears Go By and Benny Chan's 1990 film A Moment of Romance.

Although now a respected actor, Lau was initially known more for his handsome features. Some people he has worked with have called him a matinee idol, but he has claimed to be an artist.[4] Lau has proved his acting skills in many of his films. His first major acting prize came with A Fighter's Blues, which was his first Golden Bauhinia Award for Best Actor.[16] He won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor award that year for Running Out of Time.[17] In 2004, he won the Golden Horse Award for Best Leading Actor for his performance in Infernal Affairs III, the second sequel to the popular Infernal Affairs.[18]

Lau being interviewed at the 2005 Hong Kong International Film Festival

In 2005, Lau received the "No.1 Box office Actor 1985–2005" award of Hong Kong, yielding a box office total of HKD 1,733,275,816 for shooting 108 films in the past 20 years.[6][8] The aforementioned figure is as compared to the first runner-up Stephen Chow's (HKD 1,317,452,311) and second runner-up Jackie Chan's (HKD 894,090,962). "I've never imagined that it would be as much as 1.7 billion!" he told reporters. For his contributions, a wax figure of Lau was unveiled on 1 June 2005 at the Madame Tussauds Hong Kong.[19] In 2007, Lau also received the "Nielsen Box Office Star of Asia" award by the Nielsen Company (ACNielsen).[3]

In May 2014, he starred in China's first anti-trafficking film Lost and Love, playing a stubborn and kind-hearted farmer Lei Zekuan, which was released on 20 March 2015.[20]

In April 2017, he starred in the Hong Kong police action film Shock Wave,[21] which earned him another Best Actor Award at the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2018.[22]

In February 2021, Lau reunited with Tony Leung since the Infernal Affairs series in the big-budget action film The Goldfinger, backed by Emperor Motion Pictures and mainland Chinese partners, with a reported budget of around $30.8 million (RMB200 million).[23]

In 1991, Lau set up his own film production company, Teamwork Motion Pictures, which in 2002 was renamed to Focus Group Holdings Limited. His contributions in the film industry as well as his involvement in nurturing new talent in the Asian film industry led him to winning the "Asian Filmmaker of the Year" award in the Pusan International Film Festival in 2006.[3] Some of the films Lau has produced include award-winning films, Made in Hong Kong and A Simple Life, his 100th film, A Fighter's Blues, the Chinese digital film Crazy Stone, and big budget action blockbusters, Firestorm and Shock Wave.

Andy Lau in concert 2011

Lau released his first album under Capital Artists in 1985.[6] This album was not a big hit,[6] but despite having a voice not traditionally associated with popular music, Lau's hard work and perseverance resulted in him becoming one of the most successful singers in Cantopop. His singing career reached stellar status in 1990 with the release of the album entitled Would It Be Possible, and his subsequent releases only solidified his status as a marketable singer.[6] For that song, he won his first 1990 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards. He then won at least one RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards every year consecutively until the year 2007.

From Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards he has won the "Most Popular Hong Kong Male Artist" award 7 times and the "Asia Pacific Most Popular Hong Kong Male Artist" award 15 times.[6] He was also entered into the Guinness World Records for "Most Awards Won by a Cantopop Male Artist". By April 2000, he had already won an unprecedented total of 292 awards.[6]

Many of Lau's songs quickly topped the music charts not only in Hong Kong, but also in Taiwan, Mainland China, and in many different parts of Asia. Besides singing in Cantonese and Mandarin, he has also sung in other languages such as English, Japanese and Taiwanese Hokkien.

Since the early 1990s, Lau, along with Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai, have been referred to by the Chinese media as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings.[5]

Lau sang alongside Jackie Chan during a part of the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony on 24 August 2008. In addition, Lau, who has been supporting disabled athletes in Hong Kong for more than a decade, was appointed as the Goodwill ambassador for the 2008 Summer Paralympics.[24] He led other performers in singing and performing the song "Everyone is No.1" at the Beijing National Stadium just a few hours before the 2008 Paralympics opening ceremony began.[25] He also sang the theme song "Flying with the Dream" with Han Hong during the Paralympics opening ceremony on 6 September 2008.[24]

To date, Lau has written and published two books. They include his 1995 autobiography, This Is How I Grew Up (我是這樣長大的) written in prose,[26] and his 2012 book, My 30 Work Days (我的30個工作天), which is a collection of his 30 personal diaries he wrote while working on the 2011 film, A Simple Life.[27]

In 2023, Lau opened his debut art show titled the 1/X Andy Lau X Art Exhibition, which ran from 25 August through 9 September at the Freespace venue located in the West Kowloon Cultural District. The exhibit includes a sculpture which Lau designed, a projection of images from his films and concerts, paintings made by him and his daughter, and works where he collaborated with other artists, such as collaborating with Hong Kong artists Sticky Line on a statue of his character from Running on Karma, collaborating with Beijing artist Xu Zhuoer in glass covered film props from A Moment of Romance, and a collaboration with ink painter Lin Yusi where Lau showcases his calligraphy.[28][29]