Glenn

essential information

Early experience

Glenn

Her real name is Zhang Yufang. Her ancestral home is Haining City, Zhejiang Province. She was born in Shanghai on June 13, 1933. Her stage name "Glenn" is based on the Chinese translation of her English name grace. Gran was born into a wealthy family with 13 brothers and sisters, ranking 12th. Her father, a former university professor, moved to Hong Kong in 1949 and went into business. When she was a child living in Yuyuan Garden, Xiafei Road, Shanghai, her mother found that she had a strong talent for music and performance, so when she was eight years old, she asked her teacher to teach her how to play the piano and dance. When she was studying in Shanghai Xujiahui Qiming middle school, Glenn began to follow Li Mengxiong to learn vocal music, which laid the foundation for her wish to become an excellent soprano. Glen is also an active member of the school. She is indispensable for extracurricular activities such as speaking, singing, dancing and drama.

Acting experience

First on screen

In April 1952, the famous director Bu wancang founded Taishan film company to recruit new people. At that time, Glenn, who was still in the third grade of high school in Hong Kong Deming middle school, was not only the first to apply, but also was admitted with the highest score. After the completion of the training course, Taishan company made the film "Seven Sisters" for them. Glen, together with six other heroines in the play: Zhong Qing, Li Yi, Liu Lianghua, Luo Ting, Chen Yun and Rong Yuanjing, is known as "Taishan seven sisters". Bu wancang appreciated Gran very much and thought that she was a talented, educated and promising actress. He specially recommended her to study performing arts and Western vocal music with famous Kunqu Opera student Yu Zhenfei, famous singer Huang feiran and Ms. ye lengzhuqin. Therefore, apart from the film actor, Glenn is also a well-known Peking opera fan. In the Peking Opera Film Wang Baochuan, produced by Zhang Yeyun, she plays the role of Princess daizhan, and her singing and acting are well received. In her "young children", she performed the Kunqu Opera "spring fragrance farce"; in November 1953, Yu Zhenfei performed "broken bridge" in "Legend of the White Snake" at Huangren college in Hong Kong, and specially assigned Glenn to play qinger.

Glenn can speak fluent English. Before taking part in the film, he took part in English stage plays on campus. In 1954, Hollywood actor Clark Gable filmed "soldier of fortune" in Hong Kong, asking for an English speaking Chinese actress to play the role of fisherman's girl. More than 2000 people took the exam, and only one of them was admitted to Glenn.

Join Dianmao

On October 30, 1955, Glenn went to Taiwan to celebrate President Chiang Kai Shek's birthday with a birthday party composed of Hong Kong Film and drama artists. He performed Manbo songs and dances at the party, which was very popular. After returning to Hong Kong, he was immediately solicited by the International Film Company (later renamed "International Film Co., Ltd."), and his first film "Thriller" was recommended to compete for the best actress award at the third Asian Film Festival. With Yu Wei's support, Dianmao made the film "Mambo girl" for Glenn. It not only broke the box office records of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, but also set off a wave of Mambo fever and became an unprecedented work that shocked the film world. "Mambo girl" can be regarded as a song and dance film tailored for her, and also a pioneer of the youth school's song and dance film.

"Mambo girl" is Glenn's second work for "Dianmao", which is also a breakthrough in her acting career. Before that, although she had starred in ten films, she was only a qualified new actor. However, the film "man" gave her a new image of "College Girl" who was carefree, free, full of youth and enthusiasm, and soon became popular all over Southeast Asia. At the beginning of the film, Glenn and a large group of middle school students sang and danced madly, accompanied by rock and jazz, showing their youthful vitality. The scene is spectacular. In the end, Glenn realized that instead of being haunted by the past, he should face up to the reality, face the future steadfastly, and embody a positive philosophy of life. The film's choreography, photography, art and music have reached the high level of the era of Dianmao. The matching of Ge Lan and Chen Hou's songs and dances is particularly outstanding. The eight episodes in the film are all popular and exquisite. Ge Lan has also become an idol of song and dance films with this film.

Since Glenn's "Mambo girl" created the first fashion film for filmmakers going south, the appearance of actresses in Hong Kong films has become more and more beautiful and exquisite. With the popularity of the film, the actresses' dress has also been loved and respected by the public. In today's Hong Kong film industry, actresses are still regarded as classics, constantly copying and remaking. In October 1959, at the invitation of NBC, Glenn went to Hollywood to perform the Dinah shore show, a comprehensive TV program hosted by the famous female singer Dinah shore, becoming the first Chinese actress to perform on American TV. During the performance, Glenn sang many Chinese and English songs and performed Chinese dances, which were appreciated by people in the United States. Overseas Chinese studying in the United States are even more proud of Glenn's performance.

In 1960, the famous Japanese composer ryunoichi Obuchi wrote all the songs of the film "love of wild roses" for Glenn. In the era when only English pop songs were broadcast on radio's pop charts, the episode "unspeakable joy" was the only Chinese song that made it into Radio Hong Kong's weekly list of most popular songs, while "Madame Butterfly" topped the list of Chinese and foreign pop songs by commercial radio audiences for several weeks.

Glenn's song

In 1961, Capitol Records published a song called "Hong Kong's G raceChang:TheNightingaleoftheOrient "), including 11 famous songs (such as" I want to fly to the sky "," temple bell "," Huansha River "," sea night "and so on), Glenn successfully entered the international music world and reached the peak of reputation.

Personal life

On June 15, 1961, Glenn and Mr. Gao Fuquan, a wealthy businessman from Hong Kong and Macao, met in London St.Saviour The church held a wedding ceremony. Gao Fuquan was born in 1916, 17 years older than Glenn. He was the elder brother of you min's husband Gao Fuqiu, so Glenn and you min became sister-in-law. After more than seven months of honeymoon around the world, she returned to Hong Kong and made films such as "teach me how not to miss her" and "the lotus lamp".

In 1964, after performing "marriage between crying and laughing" (Part I and part II), Glenn officially quit the film and singing circles and devoted himself to teaching his husband and children. After they got married, their lives were quite sweet. In 2004, Glenn's husband died at the age of 88.

Take part in the film

social activities

Since her death, Glenn has always been interested in art. Since 1971, she has been studying Peking Opera with famous teachers such as Jiang Fengshan and Ni Qiuping. After years of hard training, she has won the soul of Mei school. In August 1979, the Beijing Opera Troupe of China visited Hong Kong for cultural and artistic exchanges. Glenn came on stage and sang Mei Lanfang's famous play "hatred for life and death", which was a good story.

In November 1989, Glenn and yayouji Peking Opera band recorded a record entitled "selected works of Beijing Opera"; in April 1993, the Hong Kong Municipal Council held the 12th Hong Kong International Film Festival with the theme of "Mandarin films and time songs". Glenn was invited to attend the forum as a guest. In 1994, on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of Mei Lanfang, the Peking opera star, Glenn and 18 friends held a "plum blossom recital party" at the Sai Wan Ho cultural and entertainment center in Hong Kong. All the proceeds were donated to charity. In February 1995, Glenn was interviewed by Gan Guoliang, director of Chinese TV station of satellite TV.

On April 11, 2002, at the invitation of the Hong Kong Film Archive, Glenn attended the Symposium "Dianmao Star: impression and image". On July 6, Glenn took part in the Beijing Opera oratorio party held by yayouji and the Chinese traditional drama society to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China. On August 11, 2013, Glenn was invited to attend the "Mambo girl is back" activity.

Character evaluation

Glen has a wide range of theatrical ways and diversified images. He is competent in acting either cheerful and lively (Mambo girl), amorous and uninhibited (wild rose love), sentimental and sentimental (thousand face girl) or greedy and snobbish villain (wine, sex and wealth). He is also good at singing and dancing, and no one can be better than him. He can be called "thousand face girl" in Mandarin movies.

Chinese PinYin : Ge Lan