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BIOGRAPHY
Childhood Ivy Ling Po real name is Jun Hai-Tang. She was born in 1939 (or 1940, according to some sources) - an Amoy, China native. As an adopted child, her exact birth date remains uncertain. Because she was born during the Chinese Civil War, her biological parents decided to give her up for adoption. When the war ended in 1950, Ivy's adopted parents migrated to Hong Kong. Within the next few years, this little girl began to appear in her first film - LOVE OF YOUNG PEOPLE. Pre-Shaw Brothers Started at an early age, Ling Po began her acting career when she was only eleven years old. She appeared in Ha-Yeun (Hokkien) movies, a kind of dialogue in 1950s, under alias of "Xiao Juan". She appeared in this kind of films up until 1962, before becoming a household name and was renowned to the world as Ivy Ling Po (Ling Bo). Shaw Brothers Joined Hong Kong's largest movie empire at the time, Ivy came to Shaw Brothers in 1962. She started out by doing backstage vocal for actress Ren Jie, through the role Jia Bao Yu in DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER, which also featured Ivy's THE LOVE ETERNE co-star actress Betty Le Di (Lok Tih). Because of her ability to sing Huangmei Opera, Ivy was casted by director Li Hsi-Hsang for the leading male role in the infamous 1963 THE LOVE ETERNE (Liang Shan-Po Yu Zhu Ying-Tai). The perfection performance made her a stardom overnight and the name Ivy Ling Po (Ling Bo) became a ticket-soldout throughout Southeast Asia for a decade. Her role as the heart-broken scholar Liang Shan-Po swept millions of fans and turned Taipei into a madden city during her visit later that year. Being a Shaw's supreme star, Ivy spent her next twelve years living at the Shaw's dormitory and working endless from one film to the next. Unlike most stars at the time, she had to dub her own voice and self sang in all Huangmei movies she starred. While working on a very demanding schedule, the actress considered those years as "fun and careless." Ivy was a well-rounded actress who tried her hands in different types of movies including Huangmei Opera, Wuxia, Historical Drama, and Contemporary Drama. Despite this fact, her favorite genre is Huangmei Opera and fans must agree that Ivy is best in her male scholar roles. Post-Shaw Brothers Ivy completed her contract with Shaw Brothers in 1975. By that time, Mandarin films began to take a downturn while Cantonese films started to experience a boom. Shaw Brothers shifted its attention toward television production as Ivy continued on with the next chapter in her life. For the next several years, Ivy spent time doing television work in Taiwan and produced movies with her husband, Chin Han. Two of her well known post-Shaw productions were "Dream of The Red Chamber" and "Imperious Princess." Ivy eventually retired by the mid-1980s. By 1989, Ivy and her husband resided in Canada. The couples still travel frequently to Hong Kong and Taiwan for charity events or fun concerts upon requests by other celebrities. Other Interesting Facts Ivy married Shaw's actor Chin Han on June 18, 1966 and is the mother of 3 sons. Her second son, Kenneth Bi, is today's HK independent film director/maker while her third son is a singer/song writer in Taiwan. Ivy stays with her eldest son in Canada. Her quality time nowadays is no longer running from one film studio to the next. Instead she is busied with dropping and picking her grandchildren to and from school or playing golf with her husband. The published information were gathered from different sources on the Internet and other various publications. If anything is incorrect, please notify the site owner immediately. |