香港影壇大亨鄒文懷逝世，曾捧紅李小龍和成龍

HONG KONG — Raymond Chow, a Hong Kong film producer who thrust Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan into global stardom while helping to transform the action movie genre, died on Friday in Hong Kong. He was 91.

香港——電影制作人鄒文懷上周五在香港去世，享年91歲。他使李小龍和成龍享譽(yù)全球，同時(shí)幫助革新了功夫片這一類型。

His death was confirmed in a statement by Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive. The statement did not list a cause of death.

香港行政長(zhǎng)官林鄭月娥在一份聲明中確認(rèn)了他的離世。聲明沒(méi)有給出死因。

A former journalist, Mr. Chow entered the film industry as a publicist in 1958, when he joined Shaw Brothers, a studio that had a pioneering role in kung fu movies and other popular low-budget films. But he quickly grew frustrated with the quality of the studio’s output.

鄒文懷做過(guò)記者，1958年入職邵氏兄弟電影公司擔(dān)任宣傳，由此進(jìn)入電影業(yè)。在功夫片和另一些流行的低成本影片上，邵氏公司一馬當(dāng)先。但鄒文懷很快就對(duì)公司出品影片的質(zhì)量感到失望。

“It was hard to publicize a film that I do not believe in,” he said in a 2011 interview. “There are only so many lies I can tell. I can’t really exaggerate. Nobody will believe us.”

“很難去宣傳一部我自己都沒(méi)信心的電影，”他在2011年的一次采訪中說(shuō)。 “我不太會(huì)說(shuō)假話。 我不會(huì)夸大其詞。沒(méi)人會(huì)信的。”

So the studio founder, Run Run Shaw, invited him to contribute his ideas on scripts, and he soon became a producer. Mr. Chow longed for more freedom over his work, and in 1970 he left to co-found his own studio, Golden Harvest.

于是公司創(chuàng)始人邵逸夫請(qǐng)他為電影劇本出謀劃策，他很快成為制片人。鄒文懷渴望有更多的工作自由，在1970年離開(kāi)邵氏與人合辦了自己的電影公司嘉禾。

Golden Harvest’s initial films did poorly against Shaw Brothers, which dominated the local market. But Mr. Chow then outbid his former employer to sign Bruce Lee, a young actor and martial arts expert who had appeared in the sidekick role of Kato on the American television series “The Green Hornet.”

嘉禾早期出品的影片很難與當(dāng)時(shí)統(tǒng)領(lǐng)本港市場(chǎng)的邵氏抗衡。但鄒文懷隨后以高于前東家的出價(jià)簽下了李小龍，這名年輕的演員和武術(shù)家在美國(guó)電視連續(xù)劇《青蜂俠》(The Green Hornet)中扮演過(guò)配角加藤。

Mr. Chow had seen Mr. Lee break boards in displays of powerful kicks and punches on Hong Kong television, and learned that Shaw Brothers had been unable to sign him to a film contract.

鄒文懷在香港電視節(jié)目中見(jiàn)過(guò)李小龍展現(xiàn)有力的拳腳，擊碎木板，他還得知邵氏公司沒(méi)能跟李小龍簽電影合約。

Golden Harvest offered him $15,000 for two films, along with a share of the profits and greater say in the production. Mr. Lee agreed, and Mr. Chow quickly flew his new actor to Thailand, where, in rough rural conditions, he filmed “The Big Boss” in 1971.

嘉禾提出以15000美元與他簽下兩部電影合約，并許以一定的利潤(rùn)分成和對(duì)影片更大的決定權(quán)。李小龍答應(yīng)了，鄒文懷很快讓他的新演員飛到泰國(guó)，1971年在條件艱苦的泰國(guó)鄉(xiāng)野，他拍攝了《唐山大兄》。

Mr. Lee’s intense aura and florid fight scenes helped the film become the most successful one shown in Hong Kong to that point, breaking the box-office total set by “The Sound of Music.” That success was followed by hits including “Fist of Fury” and “The Way of the Dragon.”

李小龍強(qiáng)烈的個(gè)人魅力和華麗的打斗場(chǎng)面使該片成為當(dāng)時(shí)香港最成功的公映影片，打破了此前由《音樂(lè)之聲》(The Sound of Music)保持的票房紀(jì)錄。此后的《精武門(mén)》和《猛龍過(guò)江》接二連三獲得成功。

“In our early action films, we used actors who knew little about fighting,” Mr. Chow told The New York Times in 1973. “We had to use various camera tricks. But the audience can tell the difference. It knows a real fighter when it sees one. That’s why Bruce Lee has been such a hit.”

“我們?cè)缙诘膭?dòng)作片，用的都是不怎么會(huì)打的演員，”鄒文懷1973年接受《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》采訪時(shí)說(shuō)，“我們只好在攝影上用各種花招，但觀眾還是看得出來(lái)。他們一看就知道這個(gè)人真的會(huì)打，所以李小龍會(huì)那樣賣座。”

After Mr. Lee’s death in 1973, Jackie Chan became a breakout star for Golden Harvest. He first imitated Mr. Lee, then modified his style to develop a more irreverent, comedic style of kung fu film.

李小龍1973年去世后，成龍成為嘉禾公司的新星。他起初模仿李小龍，后來(lái)改成一種更隨性、更搞笑的功夫片風(fēng)格。

Mr. Chao also discovered Angela Mao, who is called the first female kung fu star, and produced her first major film, “Hapkido,” or “Lady Kung Fu,” in 1972.

鄒文懷還發(fā)現(xiàn)了號(hào)稱香港首位功夫女星的茅瑛，并在1972年出品了她的第一部電影《合氣道》。

“I have to thank God and Raymond Chow,” she told The Times in 2016.

“我要感謝上帝和鄒文懷。”2016年她對(duì)時(shí)報(bào)說(shuō)。

Mr. Chow pursued films in Hollywood in the 1980s, and Golden Harvest produced several American box-office hits, including “The Cannonball Run,” with an ensemble cast that included Burt Reynolds. Mr. Chow found small roles for Mr. Chan and the Hong Kong comedian Michael Hui in the movie, hoping to develop the market for Chinese actors in the United States.

1980年代鄒文懷到好萊塢投拍電影，嘉禾出品了多部賣座的美國(guó)片，包括云集了伯特·雷諾茲(Burt Reynolds)等明星陣容的《炮彈飛車》(The Cannonball Run)。鄒文懷在片中為成龍和香港喜劇演員許冠文安排了小角色，希望為中國(guó)演員開(kāi)辟美國(guó)市場(chǎng)。

While his works were often critically panned, Mr. Chow had an eye for box-office success. In the 1990s, Golden Harvest produced the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series, based on earlier comic books and cartoons. The first film took in more than $200 million.

盡管他的這些影片常常獲得劣評(píng)，鄒文懷瞄準(zhǔn)的是票房成功。1990年代，嘉禾出品了根據(jù)早期漫畫(huà)書(shū)和卡通片改編的系列電影《忍者龜》(Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)。第一部影片票房超過(guò)2億美元。

Mr. Chow was born in Hong Kong on Oct. 8, 1927. He attended St. John’s University in Shanghai before returning to Hong Kong in 1949, when Mao Zedong and the Communist Party took over China. He worked as a journalist for outlets including The Hong Kong Standard and Voice of America.

鄒文懷1927年10月8日生于香港，他在上海就讀圣約翰大學(xué)，1949年毛澤東和共產(chǎn)黨取得政權(quán)后，他回到香港。他曾在英文《虎報(bào)》及美國(guó)之音等新聞媒體擔(dān)任記者。

The names of his survivors were not immediately available.

他在世親人的名字尚未可知。

His production company had a long run of success, but it stumbled after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, just as mainland China’s film industry began to grow. He sold his stake in the company in 2007 to the mainland businessman Wu Kebo, who merged it with his own entertainment group to create Orange Sky Golden Harvest Entertainment.

他的電影公司獲得了多年成功，但在1997年亞洲金融危機(jī)后一蹶不振，那也正是中國(guó)內(nèi)地電影業(yè)開(kāi)始發(fā)展之時(shí)。2007年他把自己持有的公司股份賣給內(nèi)地商人伍克波，后者將其與自己的娛樂(lè)集團(tuán)合并，成立了橙天嘉禾娛樂(lè)。

In a 2013 interview with The South China Morning Post, Mr. Chow described a liberated, collaborative style as the underpinning of his work.

在2013年《南華早報(bào)》的一次采訪中，鄒文懷形容自己的事業(yè)基調(diào)是一種自由、協(xié)作的風(fēng)格。

“My philosophy is to entertain people, to make people happy,” he said. “Filmmaking also suits my way of thinking: I love freedom, and don’t like being placed under restrictions.”

“我的哲學(xué)就是娛人，使他人快樂(lè)，”他說(shuō)。“做電影也適合我的思考方式：我喜歡自由，不喜歡受限制。”