Kong Ngai (born Tang Siu Ji; October 1936 – 13 March 2013) was a Hong Kong actor with

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and ...

and ATV.

Early years

Born in China in 1936 as Tang Siu Ji, Kong's affluent family fled to

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and later migrated to Hong Kong. Before acting he was a stockbroker and a

Cantonese opera Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Guangdong Province. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau and among Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Like all versions of Ch ...

singer.

Acting career

Kong was hired by

in 1974 and stayed with the station until 1996. He moved onto rival ATV in 1997 and remained there until 2008. Kong was known to play mainly father figures in his television career. Kong starred in one last TV series with

RTHK Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...

in 2009. Kong's career spanned half a century with credits for 80 films and television series: *

Overheard 2 ''Overheard 2'' is a 2011 Hong Kong crime thriller film produced by Derek Yee, written and directed by Alan Mak and Felix Chong and starring Louis Koo, Lau Ching-wan and Daniel Wu. It is a sequel to the 2009 film '' Overheard'' where Koo, Lau an ...

(film, 2011) *

Flaming Butterfly ''Flaming Butterfly'' () was a drama series produced by Hong Kong broadcaster Asia Television. It was the first series to be filmed in High Definition by ATV. The series consisted of 40 1-hour episodes, but 21 of them were re-edited into 90-mi ...

(ATV, 2008) * Cross Border Daddy (ATV, 2004) *

The Condor Heroes 95 ''The Condor Heroes 95'' is a Hong Kong television series adapted from Louis Cha's novel ''The Return of the Condor Heroes''. It was first broadcast on TVB Jade in Hong Kong in 1995. Many of the cast from ''The Legend of the Condor Heroes'' (1994) ...

(TVB, 1995) *

Instinct Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour, containing both innate (inborn) and learned elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a v ...

(TVB, 1994) *

The Legend of the Condor Heroes ''The Legend of the Condor Heroes'' is a wuxia novel by Chinese writer Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It is the first part of the ''Condor Trilogy'' and is followed by ''The Return of the Condor Heroes'' and ''The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber''. It w ...

(TVB, 1994) * Top Cop (TVB, 1993) *

The Greed of Man ''The Greed of Man'' is a Hong Kong television series first broadcast on TVB Jade in 1992.Dianying.com.Dianying.com" ''The Greed of Man.'' Retrieved on 2009-08-11. The story, spanning three decades from the 1970s to the 1990s in Hong Kong and Ta ...

(TVB, 1992) *

Man from Guangdong {{Chinese, title=Man from Guangdong, t=我係黃飛鴻, s=我系黄飞鸿, l="I am Wong Fei-hung", p=Wǒ Xì Huáng Fēi Hóng, j=Ngo2 Hai6 Wong4 Fei1 Hung4 ''Man from Guangdong'' is a 1991 Hong Kong martial arts television series produced by TV ...

(TVB, 1991) *

The Smiling, Proud Wanderer ''The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'' is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It was first serialised in Hong Kong in the newspaper ''Ming Pao'' from 20 April 1967 to 12 October 1969. The Chinese title of the novel, ''Xiao Ao Jiang Hu'', literally ...

(TVB, 1984) *

The Return of the Condor Heroes ''The Return of the Condor Heroes'', also called ''The Giant Eagle and Its Companion'', is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It is the second part of the '' Condor Trilogy'' and was preceded by '' The Legend of the Condor Heroes'' and foll ...

(TVB, 1983) *

Legend of the Condor Heroes ''The Legend of the Condor Heroes'' is a wuxia novel by Chinese writer Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It is the first part of the ''Condor Trilogy'' and is followed by ''The Return of the Condor Heroes'' and ''The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber''. It w ...

(TVB, 1983) *

The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils ''Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'' is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It was first serialised concurrently from 3 September 1963 to 27 May 1966 in the newspapers ''Ming Pao'' in Hong Kong and ''Nanyang Siang Pau'' in Singapore. It has been a ...

(TVB, 1982)

Personal life

Kong was a lifelong bachelor and some speculation (though not proven) about why he was single as he commented that he wished to be a woman in his next life. Kong was a friend of late actors/singers

Danny Chan Danny Chan Pak-Keung (; 7 September 1958 – 25 October 1993) was a Hong Kong singer, songwriter, records producer and actor. He is widely recognised as the first modern day pop idol in Hong Kong, gaining fame alongside performers Alan Tam, ...

and

Leslie Cheung Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing (12 September 1956 – 1 April 2003) was a Hong Kong singer and actor. Throughout a 26-year career from 1977 until his death, Cheung released over 40 music albums and acted in 56 films. He was one of the most prominent ...

. In March 2013, Kong died from lung cancer at

Ruttonjee Hospital Ruttonjee Hospital is a district general hospital in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. It is affiliated with the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Hong Kong, and provides clinical attachment opportunities for the u ...

in Hong Kong.

References

{{authority control 1936 births 2013 deaths Hong Kong male television actors Deaths from lung cancer Hong Kong male Cantonese opera actors 20th-century Hong Kong male actors TVB veteran actors Hong Kong stockbrokers 21st-century Hong Kong male actors Hong Kong male film actors 21st-century Chinese male actors 20th-century Chinese male actors 20th-century Hong Kong male singers Male actors from Guangdong People from Zhongshan Singers from Guangdong