- Hong Kong media mogul Run Run Shaw has died aged 107
- Shaw’s studios were instrumental in building Asia’s film industry
- He helped establish Hong Kong’s first free-to-air television broadcaster
- Shaw gave generously to philanthropic causes, especially education
Hong Kong (CNN) — Sir Run Run Shaw, the media tycoon who helped bring Chinese martial arts films to an international audience, died in his home in Hong Kong on Tuesday at the age of 107, the television station he founded said on Tuesday.
Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) said in a statement that the centenarian would be sadly missed:
“Although we knew this day will come, no words can adequately express our sorrow and lessen our sense of a profound loss,” it said.
With his elder brother, Runme, Shaw co-founded one of the world’s largest film studios, Shaw Brothers.
The company has produced around 1,000 movies since 1958, and helped launch the careers of star actors and directors from across Asia.
At its peak, in the 1960s and 1970s, the studios were making over 40 films a year, according to a biography by film history writers, Zhan Youpeng and Lan Chao.
“The Shaw brothers – they created the martial arts action genre and made it huge. And it’s been copied ever since,” said Patrick Frater, Asia bureau chief at industry publication Variety.
Shaw also has credits on several U.S. films including Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner.”
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He was born in 1907 in the city of Ningbo, near Shanghai in China, although there is some confusion over his exact date of birth, Frater said.
He was the youngest of six children fathered by successful textile merchant. In the 1920s he joined his brother Runje, in Singapore, in an effort to establish a market for Chinese-language films in southeast Asia, according to a Hong Kong Film Archive
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