Kwan Shan was a Hong Kong actor. He was one of the Shaw Brothers's leading men during Hong Kong's sixties golden age of Mandarin cinema. Born to a Manchu family originating from the northern province of Liaoning, Kwan Pak Wai had a difficult early life. When his war refugee parents both died, he was forced to drop out of school in order to become his family's breadwinner, working a variety of menial jobs including as a miner and dock worker. Reportedly, it was upon viewing the ghost movie "Beyond the Grave" (1954) that Kwan decided to become an actor.

By 1973, Kwan Shan's days as a leading man were now behind him. He was able to settle comfortably into supporting roles for movies and television, mainly playing fatherly figures. By the mid-eighties, he slowly faded out of movies and turned his attention to various other business ventures instead.

Married to actress Chang Ping Sie in 1961, Kwan Shan is father to Rosamund Kwan, who began her own movie career in the early eighties. Having migrated to the USA for a period, Kwan Shan returned to Hong Kong to be close to his loved ones. He lived out the rest of his life quietly and passed away from lung cancer in October 2012.

(Source: HKCM, Gendron) Edit Biography