Raymond Chow, film producer behind Bruce Lee, dies at age 91

LEGENDARY Hong Kong film producer Raymond Chow, who introduced the world to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan and even brought the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the big screen, has died at age 91.

Hong Kong’s secretary for commerce and economic development, Edward Yau, said in a statement Friday that Chow “helped nurture a pool of Hong Kong talents and brought them to the international stage.”

Chow was a journalist who became a publicist for Shaw Brothers Studios, which churned out hundreds of films and popularized the kung fu genre. Studio founder Run Run Shaw soon moved Chow to the production side of the business after Chow complained that the movies—made on low budgets and short schedules—weren’t good enough.

“I said I did not think I could keep my job because the pictures were so bad,” Chow told Asiaweek magazine in 1983. Frustrated with Shaw Brothers’ assembly-line ethic, he created his own production company, Golden Harvest, in 1970.

He soon outmaneuvered his gigantic old employer to grab the actor who would become synonymous with kung fu movies. Chow signed Bruce Lee in 1971 after seeing him on a Hong Kong television variety show.

Golden Harvest signed Lee to a three-picture deal, with each breaking all Hong Kong box office records. AP