Upgrader Sir Run Run Shaw passes away peacefully at 107

[DollarsNoSense]

Re: Hong Kong film pioneer Run Run Shaw dies aged 106

He would not have made it if he stayed in Singapore in the 1950s, he foresaw the future of Singapore….

From BBC:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25618414

Run Run Shaw, Hong Kong film pioneer, dies aged 107

Entertainment mogul Run Run Shaw, a major figure in Asia's film industry, has died at the age of 107.

The Hong Kong resident founded Shaw Brothers Studios, which produced almost 1,000 films and brought the kung fu genre into the mainstream.

He also launched Hong Kong's biggest local TV station, TVB, in 1967 and remained its chairman until 2011.

Mr Shaw died peacefully at home in Hong Kong, TVB (Television Broadcasts Limited) said in a statement.

Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung described him as "an elder that we very much respect".

"Sir Run Run Shaw has for a long time promoted the entertainment industry in Hong Kong, his philanthropy also has spread from Hong Kong to China and beyond," he said.

In Hong Kong, Mr Shaw will be remembered for launching the careers of stars such as Chow Yun-fat and Maggie Cheung, says the BBC's Juliana Liu.

He also inspired Hollywood directors like Quentin Tarantino and the Wachowski Brothers, our correspondent says.

Box office hits
Born in Shanghai, Run Run Shaw initially worked with his brothers to open cinemas across Singapore and Malaysia.

But he moved to Hong Kong in the 1950s and formed a production company, later opening the huge Movie Town studio which at its height churned out dozens of films each year.

These included the award-winning 1962 drama The Magnificent Concubine and the 1967 movie One-Armed Swordsman, which broke Hong Kong box office records and led to multiple sequels.

As competition grew, Run Run Shaw moved into US movie co-production, including the US classic Blade Runner.

He then switched focus to television, building TVB into a huge Chinese-language broadcaster.

"With his vision and energy, he had built the company to become Hong Kong's premier television station and a world leader in the Chinese-language television industry," the company said.

Mr Shaw, who was honoured by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974, was also a philanthropist and founder of the Shaw Prizes, which mark achievements in the sciences in Asia.

 

[Narong Wongwan]

He was a true philantropist. When I was working at Shaw centre I found out that many of the uncles & aunties who were working there for the Shaw organisation were actually charity cases. They were invited to join the Shaw organisation. These older workers would probably not otherwise be employed because of their age.

He also donated generously to the school(s) in Spore.

You are right, back then there were many elderly employed by him.
Many that could not be matched with suitable jobs ended up with simple jobs as lift attendants in his office buildings.
Shaw foundation also pioneered crediting bank accounts of elderly with annual angpao donations saving the elderly the hassle of making the trip in oprson to collect the cash.

 

[looneytan]

Heard from my seniors some years back that he always take 2 or 3 at one time !

did he use cuffs?

 

[Hans168]

Wow...you mean there is a likelihood that Mr Lee Kuan Yew will live to that age too?

Fat hope

Sir Run Run Shaw had a secret in life extension......... LKY does not know or cannot do same
Plus RR screwed many virgins who aspired to be movie stars.

 

[Hans168]

You are right, back then there were many elderly employed by him.
Many that could not be matched with suitable jobs ended up with simple jobs as lift attendants in his office buildings.
Shaw foundation also pioneered crediting bank accounts of elderly with annual angpao donations saving the elderly the hassle of making the trip in oprson to collect the cash.

YES unfortunately the kindness died with passing of his bro Rumne Shaw............. Howard his grandson is only interest in pampering his own birdie.... altho he has a damn pretty n under used wife

 

[escher]

He was a true philantropist. When I was working at Shaw centre I found out that many of the uncles & aunties who were working there for the Shaw organisation were actually charity cases. They were invited to join the Shaw organisation. These older workers would probably not otherwise be employed because of their age.

He also donated generously to the school(s) in Spore.

He is truly a great man .

 

[tonychat]

He was a true philantropist. When I was working at Shaw centre I found out that many of the uncles & aunties who were working there for the Shaw organisation were actually charity cases. They were invited to join the Shaw organisation. These older workers would probably not otherwise be employed because of their age.

He also donated generously to the school(s) in Spore.

Unsinkified human beings are like that, they enjoy good fortune and show middle finger to LKY and his goddamn family.

 

[looneytan]

they enjoy good fortune and show middle finger to LKY and his goddamn family.

sometime they also show middle finger to LKY's scrappgoof

 

[Seee3]

[/COLOR]

He can keep his mouth shut even at the age as shown in th photo

 

[Asterix]

This guy did not boast about:

- being able to rise from the dead if something is not to his liking
- char kway teow sellers giving him extra egg without his asking
- using knuckle dusters in cul de sacs

 

[Asterix]

If a majority of Sinkies were alert and exercised their votes wisely, Old Fart would have been toast and the Little Red Dot might have been the entertainment hub of East Asia, but ... ... ...

Sir Run Run Shaw: The legend with a heart of gold
Sir Run Run Shaw was world-renowned for his movie-making exploits, but his philanthropy and work with the Red Cross showed his humanity

In 1966, the Red Cross was in trouble. It had no money and even less blood. The organising committee was desperate.

"Can we ask Run Run to help?" someone asked.

A call went out to Sir Run Run Shaw at his movie city in Clear Water Bay. He knew little about the Red Cross.

Typically, he threw his energy and influence into the effort, staging a gala charity premiere with entry set at HK$1,000 per couple. The committee was stunned. Who could afford such an extravagant price to see a film?

Sir Run Run held a party at his palatial home on a crest above the studios.

Paying HK$1,000 for a good cause was not really all that expensive, he explained to the guests. The theatre was packed.

That solved the immediate money problem. But then he started asking questions about the Red Cross.

When he discovered that ingrained superstition and feudal belief deterred many people from donating blood, he became chairman and made blood collection a personal cause.

Swordfight heroes and film starlets trooped out before the cameras to personally donate blood. So did wealthy businessmen and their wives.

So did a swelling number of the public as a publicity drive persuaded Hongkongers that giving blood was part of their commitment to society.

In 1966, a mere 20,435 units of blood were donated in the city, largely collected from British soldiers. Last year, about 170,000, mostly local, donors gave 247,007 units of blood, the highest total on record.

Sir Run Run, who died at his Hong Kong home yesterday, is survived by two sons and two daughters - Vee-Ming, Harold, Dorothy and Violet - and by his second wife, the former Mona Fong, who he married in 1997.

When Sir Run Run Shaw came to Hong Kong in 1957 and bought land for a studio at Clear Water Bay, he almost single-handedly resurrected the ailing Hong Kong movie industry. It is estimated that over the next 25 years, Shaw Brothers made 900 films. He created entire new genres - swordfight dramas, lurid ghost stories and kung fu fighting were Clear water Bay staples.

The movie and other entertainment businesses were vital to the life and business enterprises of the tiny, bird-like man.

They were the core of his business life. But he was much, much more than a movie tycoon.

He felt a commitment to those less fortunate. Cultured and educated, he felt obliged to try to bring the better things of life to the masses.

He was on the committee that in 1969 set up the Community Chest. He was a guiding light for the establishment of the Arts Festival in 1973 and an active chairman, persuading some of the most prestigious cultural groups in the world to play in Hong Kong's humble venues.

As a philanthropist, Sir Run Run was hugely generous. In 1985 he estimated he had already given away HK$1 billion.

But as an astute entrepreneur, he was careful how he gave. He wanted to see that flood of money put to good use. He targeted education, health and other basic causes that would not merely bring short-term relief to a few people, but create building blocks for the long-term good of Hong Kong and all China.

He poured billions into The Sir Run Run Shaw Charitable Trust and The Shaw Foundation.

They promoted education, scientific and technological research, medical and welfare services and art and culture. Among his more recent ventures was the establishment of the Shaw Prize in 2002, an endowment paying US$1 million prizes to three people picked annually for innovation in astronomy, life science and medicine and mathematical science.

The first of these prizes awarded to pioneers in their fields was given in 2004. Since then, 54 prominent scientists have received the prestigious awards that have been described as the Asian version of the Nobel Prize.

Sir Run Run, or Shao Yi Fu, as he was named, was born in Shanghai in 1906 (or 1907 according to some records).

He graduated from the Shanghai YMCA School, an institution which taught him his excellent English.

With his older brothers Runme and Runje he made a flickering silent film in 1924 about the success of a hard-working businessman. It spawned what became the Shaw entertainment empire.

Sir Run Run made no secret when he reminisced about how much he loved his life.

In his sprawling mansion above Clear Water Bay he would keep guests enthralled for hours as he chatted about his adventures in movie distribution in Southeast Asia.

"There were no theatres and many of the Chinese were poor migrants working in tin mines or logging camps in remote places," he once recalled.

"They couldn't go to the movies, so we took films to them."

Complete portable cinemas, benches, screens, projectors, generators and the latest film made by Runje in Shanghai, were packed into rickety trucks and driven over nightmarish roads into the interior.

As appreciative labourers and their families watched the show, Run Run and Runme would scout out the land. If there was a good supply of customers, the brothers would build a theatre.

Shrewdly, they always bought more land than they needed for a cinema. They figured that a thriving movie house would attract a lot more people to the area, forcing up real estate prices.

This astute assumption laid the financial basis for much of the sprawling Shaw empire.

But it was show business that Sir Run Run loved. He recalled the first Cantonese language film ever made, a musical called White Dragon which featured two stars of the Guangzhou stage.

A half century after it was first shown, Sir Run Run bubbled with glee in a 1985 interview as he talked about the film.

"It broke all records and people queued for hours to see people talking in Cantonese and singing Cantonese love songs," he exclaimed. "It cost HK$5,000 to make and in its first run in Canton alone it made HK$590,000."

Vernacular movies were box office boomers. The lesson was soon learned and Shaw Brothers made the first Bahasa language movie, which drew huge audiences in British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies.

When Run Run went home to Shanghai in 1939 to make a progress report, he could proudly report back to his family about the 139 Shaw Brothers cinemas and surrounding real estate that dotted the map of Southeast Asia.

Invasion destroyed that commercial empire as surely as it conquered Southeast Asia. "We lost everything," he recalled.

But he was fortunate. He kept his head. As the Japanese military government clamped its brutal rule on Singapore, the secret police hunted through the island for the man who had distributed films showing the vicious invasion of China. He was found sheltering in the home of a friend, dragged to a police station and interrogated for 10 days.

Then a senior Japanese official made an offer Run Run could not refuse - he was asked to reopen cinemas to show films for their soldiers.

Peace did not bring prosperity. Public tastes were changed dramatically by the war and political developments.

People wanted to watch slick Hollywood and European productions. Good-quality theatres showing Chinese films stood empty. The reason, Run Run considered, was down to the appalling quality of Chinese language films.

In 1957 he headed for Hong Kong, paid 45 cents per square foot for land at Clear water Bay (Shaw movie town now stands there) and started a cinematic revolution. Over the next quarter century, he made "maybe 800, maybe 900, I can't remember" movies there.

First, they were romances set in ancient dynasties. This wave was followed by swordfight slash-and-gash dramas, and for a while stories on demons and ghosts were popular.

Then came the genre that rocketed Hong Kong moviemaking into the big time - kung fu films.

The Clear Water Bay studios were like an ants' nest, with up to three movies being shot simultaneously on the same set on a 24-hour-a-day celluloid production line.

He became chairman of TVB and was director of dozens of companies.

Sir Run Run was photographed with stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren. He rubbed shoulders with other tycoons and financiers and with politicians.

But his greatest joy was knowing that the vast fortunes he gave away were doing good for humanity.

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1400191/sir-run-run-shaw-legend-heart-gold

 

[Narong Wongwan]

This guy did not boast about:

- being able to rise from the dead if something is not to his liking
- char kway teow sellers giving him extra egg without his asking
- using knuckle dusters in cul de sacs

Do not make any comparison.
There is nothing remotely in common between an undead vampire with a great human being.
Even the mention of both in the same sentence of smear shit of sole lky to the great Sir Run Run is a big insult to the latter and his family.
RIP Sir Run Run. Burn in hell LKY.

 

[GoldenDragon]

[SUB][/SUB]

Don't think Howard is in his good books lately!!

Hahaha! He may be upset Howard did not emulate his achievements !

 

[Merl Haggard]

Do not make any comparison.
There is nothing remotely in common between an undead vampire with a great human being.
Even the mention of both in the same sentence of smear shit of sole lky to the great Sir Run Run is a big insult to the latter and his family.
RIP Sir Run Run. Burn in hell LKY.

In my book, Sir Run Run Shaw who was arrested and locked up by the Japs, he was a patriot while LKY who chose to serve the Kempeitai so that he could live well, he was a bloody coward and a traitor!

RIP Sir Run Run Shaw.

 

[cheesecake]

Howard was only emulating his grandfather. Screwing young and nubile teens is a sure way for longevity. Virgins are better but you don't get many virgins in Singapore.

 

[Narong Wongwan]

For the record....Howard Shaw of fucking underage whore fame is not Run Run's grandson....he is the grand nephew. They said, run run was known to be a player in his younger days.

 

[birdie]

Now I know why most of the Shaw shows in the 1970s and early 80s were produced by Mona Fong.

How come Sam didn't say what kind of half cook chinese name is this RunRun? didn't sam like to make this kind of idiotic remark?

 

[WongMengMeng]

Hahaha! He may be upset Howard did not emulate his achievements !

Is that the best that the notorious PAP IB can manage? Howard was tangled by a stupid law which should have been changed long ago if all these JiakLiaoBee Law MiniSTARS had been doing their job. Besides that is a far cry from buying high and selling low causing losses to the public purse to the tune of tens of billions!

:kma:

At least PAP pays GD, Lock, me and many others PAP IB double for working on public holidays.

Here's a better sound bite for you: in a nutshell, GoldenDragon, Watchman8, Locke, etc are PAP IBs!

Not so loud bro. Don't blow my cover.

 

[johnny333]

He is truly a great man .

I was thinking of the older generation who gave generously to help build Spore to what it is today. My old school had the names of people who donated $$$$ but there were other nameless people who could only donated $. Nowadays with the selfish attitude that the PAP encourages, what is the future of Spore

We all know about the millions the PAP are getting but how come there is so little news about the charitable causes supported by them
Who can tell me LKY's favourite charity What about his ex-wife?

Nowadays Spore has many billionaires but I doubt any of them would be interested in helping out Spore & Sporeans.

 

[greedy and cunning]

I was thinking of the older generation who gave generously to help build Spore to what it is today. My old school had the names of people who donated $$$$ but there were other nameless people who could only donated $. Nowadays with the selfish attitude that the PAP encourages, what is the future of Spore

We all know about the millions the PAP are getting but how come there is so little news about the charitable causes supported by them
Who can tell me LKY's favourite charity What about his ex-wife?

Nowadays Spore has many billionaires but I doubt any of them would be interested in helping out Spore & Sporeans.

they did "donated" a lot more.
1] helped other countries economy by donating through G L See
, Tomb Ma Sick , and others.
2] keeping lots of printed paper in other countries banks.
3] buying many properties in other countries.