Bill Tung

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Birth name 朱文彪 (Chu Man Biu)
Birth 30 march 1933
Death 22 february 2006 (at 72 years)

Bill Tung Biu (Chinese: 董驃) (March 30, 1933 in Hong Kong — February 22, 2006) was a Hong Kong actor and horse racing commentator. Tung started off as a horse jockey with his family racing horse stable. He was then recruited to become a horse racing commentator. Due to his fame, he was invited to act in many movies from 1949 to 1996, many of them with Jackie Chan during the 1980s and 1990s. Some of his famous roles includes playing Inspector Bill Wong in Police Story, and playing a wizard in Ghostly Vixen. His final movie before his retirement was playing 'Uncle' Bill Wong in Police Story 4: First Strike in 1996. Tung retired from horse racing commentating in 2000. Tung died in 2006 of lung failure.

Biography

Tung was born in Hong Kong in 1933. He started to learn horse riding when he was eight years old. He became an official horse jockey when he was twelve after graduating from the first post war Hong Kong Jockey Club training. In his short horse jockey career, he went to Singapore, United Kingdom and other countries as a professional horse jockey. After learning to be a horse trainer, Tung served in his family's stables as vice-horse trainers.

In 1967, when Rediffusion Television (now Asia Television) began broadcasting horse racing, Tung was recruited to become a horse racing commentator. Due to his frank assessment and criticism in the horse racing circles, he was respectfully called "Uncle Biu". Due to the loss of broadcasting rights, Tung was not able to continue as a commentator on television and he joined the Hong Kong Jockey Club as a radio show host. It had an effect on the radio industry as the listenership for Radio Television Hong Kong increased significantly.

After 1997, when Hong Kong Television lost the broadcasting rights, Tung went to the Macau Jockey Club as a horse trainer. In his first year as a trainer, Tung won 64 races with the horses from his stables. He also worked as a horse racing commentator in Macau until 2000. He returned to Hong Kong as a horse racing commentator for the 2003–04 horse racing season.

In July 2005, Tung retired from the media industry due to heart disease. He had been hospitalized several times due to diabetes and heart diseases. On February 16, 2006, Tung was admitted to St. Paul's Hospital on Hong Kong Island due to physical discomfort. On February 22, 11pm, due to pulmonary fibrosis leading to organ failure, Tung died in the hospital in the company of loved ones, at the age of 73.

A funeral committee was set up and Tung's wake was held on March 13, 2006, 4 pm at the Hong Kong Coliseum. Actor and good friend Jackie Chan was one of the pall-bearers. In the afternoon of the next day, Tung was cremated at Sha Tin's crematorium.

In his four marriages, Tung had five children. His three daughters are now married. Both of his sons have died, one at a young age, and his second of cancer.