Lau Dan 劉丹, 劉慶基
Lau Dan began his career in film at Cathay and Shaw Brothers studios, but it was on television that he found fame. He played the Shanghai gangster Feng Jingyao, Hong Qigong from the novels of Jin Yong, and a roast pork vendor in A Kindred Spirit. That role opened the door to TVB's long-running family dramas. In one of them, Come Home Love：Lo And Behold, Lau played the head of the Hung family for nearly ten years.
Lau Hin-Kei, the future Lau Dan, was born in 1944. He first stepped on stage at school at a teacher's suggestion. As a teenager he boxed and attended a drama club at the YMCA, but he chose a practical profession. In the evenings Lau studied construction at a polytechnic institute, and by day he worked on a building site. When work grew scarce, an acquaintance who was a ship's captain invited him aboard a long-haul vessel. Lau welcomed the chance to see the world. The pay, by his account, was good. Only two years later, when he had grown tired of looking at the same sea, did he begin to think about how to get off the ship.
Cathay had chartered the vessel he worked on for a shoot. Lau watched the film crew, struck up a conversation with the director, and soon spotted a newspaper ad for the studio's acting classes and applied. By his account, he spent a long time choosing a photograph in which he looked his best. After the first interviews he was told to wait for an answer. Lau went to sea for a while longer, then decided he might miss the letter because of a voyage and quit. Out of more than a thousand applicants, he recalled, forty-five were accepted into the classes, and after graduation only eleven were offered contracts. Lau was among them.
At the Cathay studio Lau learned to ride horses and was given small roles. When the company began winding down film production, he signed a contract with Shaw Brothers. There he was fairly quickly given the lead in The Devil's Mirror (1972). Lau recalled that the picture opened right during a typhoon, almost no one went to the cinema, and he had to forget about another big role for a long time. On the other hand, he spoke good Mandarin and was invited to dub films. There was enough work to last all night. One day Lau saw his senior colleagues dozing off between recording sessions and wondered how many years he himself was prepared to spend dubbing. Just then Stanley Fung called him and suggested he try his luck at the CTV television channel.
Lau had had almost no dealings with television before. He worked at CTV for about two years, until an offer came from TVB. The new channel agreed to wait until his contract expired, and soon Lau landed the role that made him known far beyond Hong Kong. In The Bund (1980), his Feng Jingyao knows how to bend people to his will and knows what he will have to pay for it. And at home he is the father of the girl loved by Chow Yun-Fat's character. By his account, Lau enjoyed playing a gangster who genuinely loves his daughter. He recalled how he, Chow and Ray Lui would go over the script during breaks. He and Chow, it turned out, even had similar childhood memories of boat races and of performances both had watched from atop the scaffolding.
In another series Lau played a criminal modeled on Ng Sik-Ho. According to his story, after the series aired some strangers came to him on set. They asked when he would be free, then brought boxes of food and drink. As it turned out, they wanted to thank him for the way he had played their boss. Lau said he met Ng Sik-Ho himself later, when he was making a television program in a prison. Ng gave him a thumbs-up from a distance, and Lau greeted him in return.
Among the roles of that period, Lau was especially fond of Hung Chat-Kung. He had read Jin Yong even before joining television and was delighted to learn whom he would play in The Legend of the Condor Heroes (1983). The head of the Beggars' Sect can fight, has much to teach the young heroes, and greets good food with such guileless delight that his fearsome title is easy to forget. Yung Mei-Ling, who played his disciple Wong Yung, often sought his advice. Lau recalled that in time she became almost like a daughter to him. Once, after a night shoot for The Fearless Duo (1984), Lau, Yung Mei-Ling and Michael Miu stayed to sleep right on the set. In the morning they had to be back there anyway, so they asked the props team for mats and settled down by the fire. Lau played Hung Chat-Kung again in Return of the Condor Heroes (1983) and in the new Legend (1994). In The Duke of Mount Deer (1984), also based on a Jin Yong novel, Lau played Ng Sam-Kwai and had plenty of scenes with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai.
Producer Catherina Tsang, who brought Lau into A Kindred Spirit (1995), asked him to speak more softly. Lee Biu-Bing, the owner of the shop where the characters go for roast pork, was supposed to treat his customers like old acquaintances. Lau grew very fond of the role and years later still remembered having to wash the meat on set. Most of the cuts hanging in view were props and had time to gather dust. The real pork was saved for the scenes where it had to be sliced. Lau has many such memories of A Kindred Spirit. He said he simply enjoyed coming to the set every day and working with those people.
In 2000 Lau ran for the Hong Kong Legislative Council in the New Territories East constituency, received 15,450 votes and was not elected. From 2000 to 2007 he was an appointed member of the Sai Kung District Council. He did not leave television, however. Following A Kindred Spirit, he appeared in both versions of Virtues of Harmony — the costume one (2001) and the modern one (2003). In Come Home Love (2012) Lau played Ma Fu. In Come Home Love: Lo and Behold (2017) he was cast as Hung Shiu-Gan, the owner of a transport company and the father of a large family. In January 2020, at its awards ceremony for 2019, TVB presented him with an honorary award for his contribution to television.
Lau met his wife, Lee Fuk-Ying, through a mutual friend. By his account, she was his first love, and they dated for about two years before marrying. Their son Lau Hoi-Wai also became an actor and in time moved to the mainland to work. Lau himself stayed in Hong Kong. On the day the final episode of Lo and Behold aired, 7 August 2026, TVB gathered the cast and viewers in Sha Tin. Together with his colleague Law Lok-Lam, Lau handed a large golden key to the leading ladies of the next family drama. Before the finale, Lau himself was asked whether it was time for him to retire. He replied that he intended to keep acting as long as his health allowed.
