Richard Ng


Richard Ng Yiu-hon, also known as Richard Woo, is a China-born Hong Kong actor known for playing comedic roles, particularly in Hong Kong films of the 1980s and 1990s.

Film and television career

Ng has appeared in 80 films to date. He has twice been nominated for the Best Actor Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards, for his roles in Winners and Sinners and Beyond the Sunset. He has worked alongside some of the biggest names in Hong Kong action cinema including Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Andy Lau and Jet Li.

1970s, 80s and 90s

Ng's first role was in the 1976 Michael Hui comedy film The Private Eyes. It was the first of many films Ng would appear in with Sammo Hung throughout the next 30 years.
In 1979, Ng made his only film as director, Murder Most Foul. He also starred in the film and co-wrote it with Wong Jing.
In 1983, he appeared as "Exhaust Pipe" in Hung's film Winners and Sinners, a template to the Lucky Stars series. He would go on to appear in all of the subsequent Lucky Stars films throughout the 1980s, in fundamentally the same role, though his character name in the later films was "Sandy".
Ng came to the fore in all 4 of the Pom Pom series, alongside fellow Lucky Star, John Shum. The Pom Pom films were something of a spinoff from the Lucky Stars series, though more comedy than action-orientated. Sammo Hung worked as producer on the first three, and as action director on the first two, and all four films were released by Hung's production companies, Bo Ho Films and D&B Films. The first film, Pom Pom! featured cameos from Sammo Hung, Charlie Chin and Stanley Fung as their characters from Winners and Sinners. Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao, who had also appeared in the Lucky Stars films also made cameo appearances. In the series, Ng plays "Ng Ah Chow", whilst Shum plays "Beethoven", a pair of inept and lovelorn cops. The first three Pom Pom films fared well at the domestic box office, taking between HK $17 and HK $20 million each, a sum comparable to contemporaries such as the original Lucky Stars trilogy, Chan's Project A and Hung and Biao's Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain.
Ng became an established actor, and was given supporting roles in a number of popular Hong Kong action comedies including Wheels on Meals, Millionaire's Express and Jackie Chan's Miracles.
Throughout the 1990s he appeared in at least 8 further films with Sammo Hung, including Once Upon a Time in China and America.

2000s: British TV and Father & Son films

As of 1997, Richard Ng moved to live in London, England and was said to be semi-retired. However, he is clearly still very active, having made several appearances on British television since that time, and he is also continuing to work on Hong Kong films.
Since it started in 2002, Ng has appeared in several episodes of the ongoing BBC Scotland soap, River City. His character is "Johnny Wu", the owner of the "Wok My World" takeaway.
In 2003 he appeared in the second Tomb Raider film, '.
In 2004, he appeared in a deleted scene in an episode of Black Books. He also appeared in the commercial for the video game
He also appeared in an episode of The Bill in 2005, and an episode of the Nickelodeon UK series, Genie in the House in 2006.
In 2009, he played in as Swallow the Nose Maker, a maker of prosthetics.
Ng could be seen on British television, playing a shopkeeper in an advertisement for RAC, alongside Lennox Lewis, and in another advertisement for satellite television, dressed as an eskimo. He also played the emperor of China in a Channel 4 docu-drama, The Great Wall of China. It was first shown on October 1, 2007 at 9pm. In 2008, he appeared as Sifu Chien, the Shaolin master of Hong Kong policeman, Terry Phoo in the pilot episode of the BBC Three program, Phoo Action.
In 2000, Richard Ng appeared alongside his son, Carl Ng, in the film Love at First Sight a.k.a. Sausalito. The two have since appeared together several more times, including in Dante Lam's ', Lemon Crush, Sammo Hung's Legend of the Dragon and the Jingle Ma film, Happy Birthday.
Ng and son will also appear together in three forthcoming films. The first of these is Magazine Gap Road, which is completed and due for release in 2007. This will be followed by , which is currently filming, and in 2008, Jessica Caught on Tape.
He had a cameo appearance in the 2016 film Skiptrace.

Personal life

Ng was educated in England and returned to live in London in 1997.
He is married to his wife, Susan, a British woman who worked as Bruce Lee's hair stylist in the 1970s. Together, they have four children, event producer Alex Ng, Zoe Ng, Louise Ng and actor Carl Ng.

Selected filmography