The 10 Best Chinese Movie Actors

In China there are a lot of famous movie actors on film screens, who is the greatest actor? Everyone has his own answer. Here is my list of the top 10 male movie actors who I think have the biggest impact in China.

1.  Bruce Lee 李小龙

Bruce Lee (born Nov. 27, 1940) was well-known for his martial arts movies. He brought the martial arts movies to the Westerners in the 1970s. His films aroused worldwide interest in Chinese martial arts in the 1970s and many foreigners began to know China from his movies. His main movies include Enter the Dragon,  Chinese Connection 2 , Game of Death and Fist of Fury.

2. Leslie Cheung  张国荣

Leslie Cheung (1956 – 2003), was a Hong Kong film actor and singer. Cheung gained great success in both film and music fields. In 1991 he was awarded the Best Actor with film Days of Being Wild by Hong Kong Film Award. His 1993 film Farewell My Concubine was the first Chinese film that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. In 2010 he was listed in CNN’s “Top 25 Greatest Actors in Asia”

3. Chow Yun-Fat 周润发

Chow Yun-Fat, born in 1955, is a famous Hong Kong film actor. He is famous for his gangster movies A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled in the east. In the West movie lovers knew him from his Oscar-Awarded movie the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

4. Jackie Chan 成龙

Jackie Chan, born in 1954, is a Hong Kong actor and martial artist. He is famous for his acrobatic fighting style and innovative stunts in his movies. He is one of the few actors that did all of his stunts himself in all of his films. Jackie Chan has acted in more 150 movies, among which Drunken Master series, The Armour of God series, Police Story series and Project A series are his most important works. 

5. Stephen Chow Sing Chi 周星驰

Stephen Chow was, born in 1962, is a comedy actor known for his Wu Li Tou style movies, which in Mandarin literally means “nonsense”. He started his movie career in 1988 and starred in many films like Fight Back to School, Flirting Scholar Westward Journey, King of Comedy, Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu and other films. His movies broke Hong Kong box office records for 6 times. In 2013 he directed his new movie Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons which amounted to $ 218 million in worldwide box office.

6. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai 梁朝伟

Tony Leung Chiu-Wai is a Hong Kong film actor. He has acted in lots of movies since the 1990s. His major films include Days of Being Wild, Happy Together, Lust Caution and The Grandmaster. He was awarded Best Actor in Cannes Film Festival for his 2000 movie In the Mood for Love.

7. Jet Li 李连杰

Jet Li or Li Lianjie in Mandarin, born in 1963, is a famous Chinese film actor and martial artist. Jet Li became well known with his first film Shaolin Temple (1982). He continued to act in many martial arts movies, among which the most successful one is the Once Upon A Time In China series. He starred his first Hollywood movie Romeo Must Die (2000) and then many other action films, including Kiss of the Dragon and Unleashed.

8. Andy Lau 刘德华

Andy Lau Tak-wah (born in 1961) is one of Hong Kong’s most commercially successful film actors He started his film career from 1982 and starred movies like Boat People, A Moment of Romance, Running Out of Time，Infernal Affairs, Blind Detective, and other works. He has won three times of Best Actor of Hong Kong Film Award, and two Golden Horse Best Actor Awards. In 2005 he was awarded the “No.1 Box Office Actor 1985-2005” of Hong Kong in the past 20 years.

9. Ge You  葛优

Ge You (born in 1957) is a well-known Chinese comedy actor. His comedy roles in films made him a household name all over the country. His major film works include If You Are the One, A World Without Thieves, Big Shot’s Funeral, Cell Phone and The Trouble Shooters. Ge You won the Best Actor Award at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival  for his role in the movie To Live.

10. Jiang Wen 姜文

Jiang Wen (born in 1963) is a Chinese film actor and director. He wrote and directed his debut film In the Heat of the Sun, which was ranked by Time Magazine as “The world’s Top Ten Best Film of 1995.” Jiang became well-known to the world with his film Red Sorghum (1986). His 2010 film Let the Bullets Fly broke many box office records of domestic films.