Richard Ng Man-tat (Chinese: 吳孟達, 2 January 1952[1][2] – 27 February 2021), commonly called Uncle Tat (達叔), was a Hong Kong actor originally from Fujian.
[3] Ng was best known for his comedic roles alongside Stephen Chow and was a versatile actor with many memorable performances throughout his career.
[8] After some consideration, Ng decided to restudy and improve his acting skills, reading up on Konstantin Stanislavski's An Actor Prepares and Zheng Junli's The Birth of a Role (角色的誕生).
[1] While repaying his debts, Ng was cast in 1981's Heroic Cops [zh], in which his efforts were recognised, thus enabling him to continue acting in films and television series.
[9] Chow said that he didn't want to lend money to him as he feared that it would turn into a form of reliance, making it harder for Ng to recover from his gambling habit.
[12][13][14] Although Ng owed much of his popularity to co-starring in comedy films, he showed himself to be a versatile actor in successfully portraying various roles.
He also played Andy Lau's sidekick in the Lee Rock series in a more serious role, which won him Best Supporting Actor at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards.
[19] In 2019, Ng starred in the science fiction film The Wandering Earth,[20] in which he played the grandfather of the male lead.
[6] Ng nearly rejected the role as he believed that the Chinese film industry was not fit to make science fiction movies, and he had to undergo heart surgery at the time.
[25] In 1993, while Ng was filming All's Well, Ends Well Too in Singapore, he met Hou Shanyan (侯珊燕), a Malaysian beauty pageant runner-up and artist.
He lived with his family in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, until shortly before his death, when he asked to spend time in Hong Kong.
In February 2021, he confirmed that he suffered from liver cancer and had been undergoing chemotherapy followed by rest and recuperation, but his condition had turned critical.