Yuan Muzhi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yuan.
Yuan Muzhi (simplified Chinese: 袁牧之) (March 3, 1909 - January 30, 1978) was an actor and director from the Republic of China and later of the People's Republic of China.
As an actor, Yuan became extremely popular and took on the nickname "man with a thousand faces." Yuan gained prominence in a series of films for the leftist Diantong Film Company. These included the film Plunder of Peach and Plum (1935) (which Yuan also wrote) and the movie Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm (1935) where he was one of the two original singers (along with Gu Menghe) of the movie's theme song, The March of the Volunteers, which later became the national anthem of China.
His career eventually brought him to director's chair. His direction of the film Street Angel (1937) (Malu tianshi), which starred the famous singer Zhou Xuan as the lead actress, is still considered one of the best films from the "second generation" of Chinese filmmakers. Yuan also continued to act in roles, notably Eight Hundred Heroes (1938) depicting the events of the Defense of Sihang Warehouse.
After 1949, Yuan continued to be a major figure in the film industry, helping to found Dongbei Film Studio, which eventually became the first state-controlled production companies in the People's Republic of China.
Yuan was a delegate to the first National People's Congress and the third Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Kuoshu, Harry H. (2002), Celluloid China: Cinematic Encounters with Culture and Society, Southern Illinois University Press, ISBN 978-0809324569
 |
This article about an Chinese actor or actress is a stub. See the WikiProject Chinese cinema for article coordination. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
