Alex Man to Retire from Acting
Award-winning veteran actor Alex Man (萬梓良) has announced his retirement.
At a celebratory dinner on Sunday for his latest film Zombiology <今晚打喪屍>, the 59-year-old actor announced that he will officially retire from acting when he turns 60 years old next July. Alex is a prolific television and film actor, and has been in the industry since the late 1970’s.
On his decision for having a relatively early retirement, Alex said, “I have diabetes. Although I regularly exercise, doing a movie requires a lot of physical effort. I’m not sure if I’m able to continue to work like that anymore.”
Although Alex will be backing down from an onscreen career, he plans to continue his interests off-stage, and may take up producing and directing work after his retirement.
“I’ve always wanted to direct a movie or produce a television drama,” admitted Alex. “I couldn’t decide for a while. I have thought about retiring after I turn 66, because that is when my son turns 21. But not all film studios would be able to change their schedules to accommodate my current [health] situation, so it’s better to just go back to my original plan.”
Alex Man started off as an RTV/ATV actor in the late 1970’s, and had starred in a number of relatively successful television dramas before transitioning to TVB in the 1980’s. Many of Alex’s TVB dramas became number one hits, putting him as one of the most commercially-successful television actors of Hong Kong.
Source: Oriental Daily
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Aiyoo….this Uncle should retire from filming industry long time ago. Don’t like him. Too ego…..Quickly get rid from film industry give chance to those youngster.LOL…
@rucofans I remember this fella was a damn nuisance at some talent show when he was a judge. so please retire for good because his absence will not be missed.
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He will not be missed. His career ended in mid 80s and no one really cares about him from there on. In fact, it was so bad that he ended up in Singapore in one of its poor copycat dramas. Unlike his contemporaries like Chow Yun Fatt and Simon Yam whose careers are still thriving, Alex has been “dead” for a long time.
lol i thought he retired20years ago
@hannah @creditor Alex Man left acting to develop a men’s fashion business in China in the 1990s. After the rise and fall of his business, he returned to acting. But it was more part-time basis, as he has been suffering from diabetes for some years.
Alex was an acting legend who deserves greater respect. He delivered very memorable performances in the 70s and 90s. It is normal for older actors to fade out of the spotlight and play supporting roles, perhaps even in less prestigious productions, because of age. Not many are like Chow Yun Fat who is able to still lead a film at the age of 60.
@jayne I wouldn’t call Alex an acting legend. An acting legend is someone who is known by everyone, old or young. Ask any of the younger folks if they know who Alex Man is and they will reply “Alex who?” And please tell what memorable performances had Alex delivered. Nothing comes to my mind.
@creditor While I agree that Alex Man is not an acting legend, I disagree that his talent should be discounted just because “everyone old and young” don’t know who he is. The younger generation don’t know who A LOT of the 70s/80s artists are – so does that mean these artists don’t deserve any respect and should just retire just because current audiences don’t know them?
I was never a fan of Alex Man’s acting and felt he was too OTT most of the time, but I respect him as an acting veteran who DID have quite a few memorable performances to his name. Since you asked, here are a few of his memorable performances in my book (and this is just counting TVB series): Justice of Life (1989), Feud Between Two Brothers (1986), The Price of Growing Up (1986), Genghis Khan (1986), And Yet We Live (1988), The Big Family (1991). These are just the ones that come to mind off the top of my head – I’m sure I can come up with more later.
Judging by some of the comments on this thread (and other threads in this forum), it’s sad that many of the younger generation seem to have little to no respect for veteran artists. And we wonder why the current generation of artists can’t seem to cut it when it comes to acting or carrying series by themselves – most of them probably take the same attitude as these youngsters who feel that old people have nothing useful to contribute and should just fall off the face of the earth. This reminds me of a comment that various veteran artists have made about the younger generation artists they’ve worked with – that the younger artists nowadays have little respect for the senior artists and don’t care to learn from these artists like previous generations did (ask any of the A list actors in the HK entertainment industry today who came from TVB or the television industry and I’m sure they will tell you how valuable their experiences working with their seniors were). No wonder many veteran artists are not willing to give acting advice anymore – I wouldn’t either if I were them. Why should the older artists continue to “put money” in younger artists’ pockets when the younger artists push them away and make it so clear that they don’t want the older artists’ money?
@llwy12 totally agree. Well said. Alex does over act sometime but he does have memorable roles.
@llwy12 Please read my post carefully. I was not saying anything in general about veteran actors. I was replying to Jayne’s comments that Alex is an acting legend, of which I disagree because he is not known to everyone, unlike true legends like Chow Yun Fat and Simon Yam who are known to both old and young alike. Even Adam Cheng is known to the younger generation.
As for Alex having memorable roles, he didn’t leave me any impression for those dramas you quoted (in fact, I had to scratch my head trying to recall some of these dramas). And wasn’t Justice of Life memorable because of Stephen Chow’s superb performance rather than Alex. Talking about Stephen Chow, he is one that can truly be call a legend.
But I do agree with your other comments. Very well put.
@creditor Part of my comment was also more of a ‘general’ comment not necessarily directed towards you. I don’t comment on this site as often anymore, but I still do read some of the articles and comments and I think it’s pretty obvious that there are some regular posters here who like to spout garbage about veteran artists despite knowing little to nothing about those artists’ careers or previous contributions (whether to TVB or the HK television industry in general). Of course, at the end of the day, acting is hugely subjective and people’s opinions are bound to differ — nothing wrong with that per se, but for me personally, it just annoys me whenever I hear people make baseless comments such as suggesting certain artists should retire just because they are ‘old ‘or not as ‘well-known’ to the current generation. Yes, part of it is me having a soft spot in my heart for veteran artists I grew up watching (in the 80s and 90s), but then again, there are also quite a few veteran/senior artists whose works I may not have watched (i.e. Shaw Brothers era artists from the 1950s/60s, many of whom retired or even passed away long before I was born), but yet still respect after learning about their accomplishments and contributions to the industry. I guess you can say that my problem is with the attitude and mentality of the current generation in general…
@jayne alex was good in the 80s and 90s. Will always rememeber him in “Justice of Life” with Stephen Chow.
@happybi yes i rember too
Alex running in the streets after money in his birthday suit shortly after lui yan had shot siu wah san and cheng yut long’s daughter ci kar went crazy; those memorable times susanna kwan sings about today – we rember.
When Alex Man was with 麗的， I remember he made some classic series such as 太極張三豐 and 大內群英。Those who watched these series before will know what I am talking about. Although he has never been my idol before, I respect him as a veteran actor and I give credit to his success (He led many series in the ’80s and ’90s and some are classics) and his hard work. It is rude to tell veteran actors / actresses to retire because they are old and are not well-known to youngsters. This is ageism. They have their fans too.
@rainbow28 Well-said and agreed! Sadly though, it seems to be quite common nowadays for youngsters to discount veteran artists’ knowledge/experience/opinions when it comes to acting. I’ve read / watched countless interviews over the past decade where veteran artists had ‘complained’ (I use that word loosely) about being treated disrespectfully by some of the younger artists they’ve collaborated with (and I have seen for myself some of the comments that younger audiences make towards veterans). One veteran artist I remember said that he had tried to give acting pointers to a younger artist he was filming with (younger artist was struggling with their scenes) but the veteran artist was told to his face that his opinion was not worth listening to because he was already ‘outdated’ and ‘irrelevant’ as an actor (needless to say, that veteran artist refused to give acting advice to anyone from that point on). Of course, not saying that all younger generation are like that, but there are enough out there with this type of attitude/mentality to make it a pretty common issue.
I only remember Alex Man with his ex wife Tien Nu.