Chinese Name：陳松勇
Date of Birth: July 01, 1941
Date of Death: December 17, 2021
Place of Birth: Taipei City, Taiwan
Did You Know?
Veteran actor Chen Sung-young broke onto the scene in the 1970s, since which time he has performed in many popular shows, playing everything from a warrior and a monk to a local despot. He performed every role with tremendous passion, leaving lasting impressions on all who watched. In 1989, he won the award for Best Actor at the 26th Golden Horse Awards for his role in the film “A City of Sadness (悲情城市).” After 2000, he gradually dialed back the amount of work he took on until 2015, when he formally announced his retirement. In the years that followed, his health began to fail, and in 2021, Chen Sung-young passed away.
Chen Sung-young grew up in difficult circumstances, with his formal education ending after two grades at Ying-qiao Elementary School. After dropping out, Chen followed his father around, selling fish and fruit at market stalls. Even as a child, he loved literature, and in his spare time, he read ancient texts such as the "Records of the Grand Historian (史記)," "Book of Han (漢書)," "Guwen Guanzhi (古文觀止)," as well reading as modern Chinese works in the Mandarin Daily News.
When Taiwan was under martial law, in order to dodge the police, 18-year-old Chen got a job as a stage manager and day player at Taiwan Television through a friend’s older brother, who worked there as a producer. Chen began to discover his passion for acting while working at the television station. Later, after completing his compulsory military service, he returned to TTV and continued to work on set as a prop manager and an extra.
In 1970, he played the role of a small-time gangster to great acclaim and decided to enter the acting industry for real. After performing in “A Gong Dian (阿公店)” in 1971, he was promoted to a regular player on television. Although he had job security, his living conditions were not fantastic, and so he was willing to perform whenever he was given the opportunity to do so. He has said that at the time, he worked more to make a living than out of a real passion for the art and that it was a performance as a means to survive.
In 1989, Chen Sung-young was scouted by Yang Teng-kuei (楊登魁) to play the role of a Taiwanese mob boss in the film "A City of Sadness," which was being directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢). His engaging and exquisite acting skills enabled him to elevate a supporting role to a lead, and ultimately he was honored with the Best Actor Award at the 26th Golden Horse Awards. In "A City of Sadness," the actors were given little in the way of a script, essentially just a story outline and a few basic lines, improvising all their dialogue on the spot. Chen Sung-young said, in the movie as Lin Wen-heung, he took his inspiration for how he looked, acted, and talked from his father.
After that, Chen received many offers of roles, particularly in triad films in Hong Kong; if there was a Taiwanese triad storyline in the film, Chen was considered the perfect choice by filmmakers, and his distinctively Taiwanese style quickly earned him a warm reception among Hong Kong film fans.
After winning the Golden Horse Award, Chen made his return to television, no longer limiting himself to gangster roles but instead taking on a wide variety of roles. In addition, that Golden Horse Award helped Chen leap into the list of the highest-paid actors in Taiwanese TV at the time. Throughout, Chen had high expectations not only for himself but also for those he worked with. He once said that he never actively memorized his lines, but rather focused a lot of effort on studying and internalizing the role until it all came naturally. Director Shu Chin-liang (徐進良) praised Chen for his ability to interpret his roles so naturally and to really showcase the spirit inherent in the script to the fullest.
Over more than 50 years of experience in acting, Chen embodied iconic roles in films like "The Mob Family (流氓世家)" (1988), "The Dull Ice Flower (魯冰花)" (1989), and "Prison on Fire II (監獄風雲2逃犯)" (1991). In addition to his involvement in films, he also appeared in many television productions, including "The Bodyguard (保鑣)" (1974), "Farewell A-Lang (再見阿郎)" (2003), "Independent Heroes (廉政英雄)" (2011), and "Feng Shui Family (風水世家)" (2012). Whether on the big screen or the small screen, Chen Sung-young was part of the lives of innumerable Taiwanese as they grew up. His bold, rugged image earned him a place in the hearts of the people. He also published two books in 1993 and 2005. After 2000, he gradually dialed back the amount of work he took on, with his health taking a turn in 2006. In 2015, he formally retired, and on December 17, 2021, Chen Sung-young passed away as a result of his illness.
(Photo Credit: Barbie Tsao)