Louis Koo
Louis Koo Tin-lok is a Hong Kong actor and film producer. He began his professional career as an actor in local television series, winning TVB's Best Actor award in 1999 and 2001. After 2001, he fully focused on film career and became one of the stalwarts of the Hong Kong film industry. In 2018, Koo was awarded the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor, Asian Film Award for Best Actor and the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild Award for Best Actor for his performance in the 2017 film, Paradox. Koo founded "One Cool Group Limited" in 2013. As of 2018, One Cool Group has produced 20 films. He was the ambassador of Hong Kong International Film Festival from 2014 to 2018.
Early life
Koo is his family name. Louis is his English given name, as Tin-lok is the Chinese given name. Tin means “sky” or “day”, and Lok means “happy” in Cantonese.Koo's father was an actor and then changed career to a businessman. Koo was born and received education in Hong Kong. He is an alumnus of St. Teresa's School Kowloon and Carmel Secondary School.
Teenage life
When Louis was a teenager, he made mistakes with his friends in a robbery case. Convicted by the court and sentenced to 22 months in the Correctional Services Lai King Training Centre. Louis didn't mention this matter after joining the entertainment industry. After being exposed by the media in 1994, he acknowledged the matter to the public.Career
During 1992 to 1993, Koo was a modelling agent, sometimes he worked as a model for advertisements and karaoke videos.Television actor
In 1993, Koo signed as a contract artist with TVB.Koo started gaining wide recognition in 1995 with his leading role in a costume drama The Condor Heroes 95, a popular series based on a classic wuxia novel. In 1997, Koo began sporting an extreme tan, which apparently enabled him to take on more contemporary roles. In 1999, Koo received TVB's Most Popular Actor Award for Detective Investigation Files IV. In 2000, Koo received TVB's Most Favorite Character Award for At the Threshold of an Era ll. Koo took a different approach to his role in A Step Into the Past. This deviation from his usual cool aloof on-screen persona to a funnier, carefree and down-to-earth one resonated with the audience and widened his acting range. In 2001, Koo was given TVB's Most Popular Actor Award and Favorite Character Award Award once again for A Step into the Past. He then went on an indefinite hiatus from television and has since focused on his film career.
Due to the popularity of TVB dramas in the late 1990s, Koo amassed a sizeable fan base in Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China and South-east Asia.
Film actor
Since 1994, Koo began taking on roles in films, such as the paranormal Troublesome Night series and many action films including Wilson Yip's Bullets Over Summer. Koo acted as a mute boy living on rural island in romantic literary film Sealed with a Kiss.During 2001 to 2004, Koo signed contract with China Star Entertainment Group and starred in many romantic comedies, such as La Brassiere and Naked Ambition.
In 2004, Koo took on the role of Sze-to Bo, a perpetually drunk and despondent former judo champion with hereditary eye disease, in Johnnie To’s Throw Down which was premiered at the 61st Venice International Film Festival. The movie was a marked departure from his usual commercial genres, and he also began his long-term collaboration with To and Milkyway Image.
Koo later received international acclaim for his chilling performance in Johnnie To's Election 2, which was screened at the "Out of Competition" section at the 59th Cannes Film Festival. He won the award for Most Beloved Actor in the Hong Kong UA Film Awards 2006 through public voting for his role in Election 2.
In a female perspective romantic film Happy Birthday adapted by Sylvia Chang from 'Rene Liu's novella, Koo portrayed a sensitive man who took care of ex-girlfriend after death.
Koo also took supporting roles in action movies, such as Jackie Chan's Robin B Hood, Donnie Yen's Flash Point.
His character as an unscrupulous drug addict in Derek Yee's Protégé differed from his previous performances, as he forwent his suave image for an emaciated look. The supporting role earned him positive critical feedback and Best Supporting Actor nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards.
In Sylvia Chang's female perspective gangster film Run Papa Run, Koo played a reckless triad leader who tried to shield his daughter from his past misdemeanours. Koo earned Best Actor nominations in the Hong Kong Film Awards and Golden Horse Award for this role, which required him to portray a character from his late teens to his fifties. Since then Koo took more chanllegings on father roles and middle-aged roles.
In the remake of Cellular, Connected directed by Benny Chan, he played an average Joe cast in a race against time to save a stranger.
In Soi Cheang's Accident which was a competitive film at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, Koo acted as a high-strung killer-group leader who was good at disguising murder as accidents.
In Overheard directed by Alan Mak and Felix Chong, he put on 30 pounds weight to take the role of a middle-aged cop and four kids' father more convincingly, and earned Best Actor nominations in Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards. This film was successful and then made into series with the same cast and directors but different stories.
In 2010 Koo signed pre-paid contracts with Pegasus Motion Pictures, then appeared in its All's well, ends well comedy series, and anti-corruption film series.
In costume A Chinese Ghost Story, Koo acted as a Chinese "Van Helsing" fell in love with a fox-fairy and sacrificed himself in the end. Koo made a return to his romantic comedy roots in Don't Go Breaking My Heart and sequel Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Hui, acted as a dissolute stock broker.
In Drug War directed by Johnnie To, Koo took the role of a ruthless and deliberate Hong Kong drug lord who dared to do anything to get away from mainland China's death penalty.
Koo received a Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor nomination again for his undercover cop role in Benny Chan's 2013 film The White Storm.
In Out of Inferno, Koo acted as a resigned firefighter who encountered high building fire.
In Overheard 3, he acted as a revenge with artificial limb.
In Soi Cheang's , Koo took the role of an ill and evil mastermind of a criminal organization. In Johnnie To's Three, Koo acted as a cop leader at the edge of crime.
In Shed Skin Papa, a competitive film at the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival, Koo acted as a frustrated director understood his father after mother's funeral and a series of fantastic incidents.
In Paradox, Koo play a cop who is determined to avenge his daughter and performed most of the film's action sequences without the use of a stunt double. For his performance in the film, Koo won Asian Film Award for Best Actor at the 12th Asian Film Awards as well the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild Award for Best Actor at the 12th Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild Award in March 2018. Koo's performance also won him the Best Actor award at the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards held on 15 April 2018.
Film producer
Koo was captivated by Star Wars film series when he was a child. After decades of actor careers in film industry, he expects the arise of Chinese own Sci-fi films, so he purchased several Visual effects and Prosthetic make-up companies. In 2013, Koo founded "One Cool Group Limited". As of 2018, One Cool Group has produced 20 films. The Sci-fi film Warriors of Future will be released on fall of 2019.Social work in film industry
Koo has been the ambassador of Hong Kong International Film Festival from 2014 to 2018.In 2015, Koo joined the board of Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival held in Hong Kong.
In Jan 2018, Koo was elected as the president of Hong Kong Performing Artistes Guild.
Other works
Writer
Koo has published several books over the years including his photo albums Present and Cool, as well as his autobiography Find Happiness. He also released Toys Battle, a book chronicling his love for comic book characters and movie superheroes, and donated all proceeds to UNICEF. Koo has been writing blogs everyday on his own website since December 2006.Singer
Koo recorded several theme songs for the TVB dramas he had starred in and several TV advertisement songs he had endorsed. He had also cut four albums: Boyfriend and Popular Louis in 2000, optimism in 2001, Mr.Cool in 2003.Designer
Koo was a designer of his own eyewear brand ZeroX, Level Nine, and Louis Koo. He also participated in designs of his own books, websites, company logos and some endorsed brands.Brand spokesperson
With a career spanning two decades, Koo has endorsed a large number of brands in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Some of the major brand endorsements include, Pepsi, Brooks Brothers, Samsung Galaxy, Xbox 360 Kinect, Toyota Corolla, Yokohama Tire, Lay's, Lipton, Lotte chewing gum, Tropicana, Gillette, OSIM, Tag Heuer, Epson printer, Matisse, Johnnie Walker, Pentax camera, Clinique, Hugo Boss Perfume, Bally, Puma, DBS Black World MasterCard.Charity
On July 2012, Chinese microblogs caught on to the news of Koo's low profile philanthropy in China, which became a trending topic, more and more people born in different remote rural areas found that local elementary schools were built with donation of Koo, and upload photos to the microblogs. Major Chinese dailies further reported that he had helped build 49 schools to help the underprivileged in remote areas in rural China for the past three years without any publicity. Koo was reluctant to comment on the issue but it was learnt that Koo set up his charity foundation after witnessing the devastation from the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. According to "Grace charity" website, Koo has helped build 97 elementary school buildings, 18 clinics and 751 small water supply projects in remote undeveloped areas of rural China through "Grace Charity Foundation Limited" and local government by 2017.Koo is also a UNICEF ambassador since 2007.