[1] Lee Hoi-chuen was born in Jun'an, Guangdong, China on 4 February 1901, in the waning years of the Qing Dynasty.

He moved to Hong Kong, then a British colony, and became a Cantonese opera actor.

Soon after, the Lee family led an unexpected four-year hard life as Japan, in the midst of World War II, launched a surprise attack of Hong Kong in December 1941 and ruled for four years.

[2] Their youngest son Robert Lee, who was born in 1948, would go on to become famous in Hong Kong during the 1960s as the lead singer and founder of a popular beat band, The Thunderbirds.

He was buried at St Raphael's Catholic Cemetery at Cheung Sha Wan in Kowloon.