Run Run Shaw

A titanic figure in Chinese and Hong Kong film, as well as a major influence on world action cinema, Sir Run Run Shaw produced hundreds of lavishly appointed, dynamic martial arts films, among many other genres, over the course of a seven-decade career that stretched from the silent era to the late '90s. With his brother Runme, Shaw founded Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers Studio, one of the largest film production companies in the world, and oversaw such seminal martial arts pictures as "Come Drink With Me" (1966), "The One-Armed Swordsman" (1967), "King Boxer" (1972), "The Water Margin" (1972), "Five Deadly Venoms" (1978), "The Kid with the Golden Arm" (1979) and countless others. Such international stars as Chow Yun-fat and Maggie Cheung began their careers as Shaw contract players, while directors ranging from John Woo and Quentin Tarantino acknowledged the Shaws' kinetic action as major influences on their own work. Shaw later diversified his interests into television by launching Television Broadcasts Limited, which soon dominated the Hong Kong small screen market, and investing in numerous charitable and philanthropic efforts. By the time of his death at the age of 106, Shaw was one of the Asian world's most successful business figures, as well as an iconic figure in the history of action at the movies.