Legendary movie mogul Jimmy Heung dies in Beijing (original) (raw)

Film mogul Jimmy Heung Wah-sing died in Beijing on Thursday night. He was 64 and had been receiving treatment for oesophageal cancer there.

Heung co-founded Win's Entertainment with his elder brother Charles in the 1980s. The company went on to become one of Hong Kong's most successful film studios in the 1990s.

Win's scored a number of box-office hits, including the 1989-1991 franchise, starring Chow Yun-fat as a renowned gambler, and the 1991-1993 comedy series , starring Stephen Chow Sing-chi as an undercover cop.

Jimmy Heung was one of the few local filmmakers who, undeterred by rampant piracy across the border, ventured into the mainland market in the 1990s.

The brothers went their separate ways soon after.

With Jimmy Heung focused on the mainland, Charles Heung formed China Star Entertainment Group to continue making films in Hong Kong.

In 2001, Jimmy Heung and his then girlfriend, actress Shirley Cheung Yuk-shan, were arrested by anti-triad officers in connection with a criminal damage case.