Bill Tung

Q: When did Bill Tung die?

Bill Tung died on February 22, 2006.

Q: How old was Bill Tung when they died?

Bill Tung was 72 years old at the time of death.

William Tung Biu (Chinese: 董驃) (March 30, 1933 in Hong Kong — February 22, 2006) was a Hong Kong actor and horse racing commentator. Tung started off as a jockey with his family racing horse stable. He was then recruited to become a horse racing commentator. Due to his fame, he was invited to act in many movies beginning in the late 1970s. He appeared in several films with Jackie Chan during the 1980s and 1990s, such as playing Inspector "Uncle" Bill Wong in the original Police Story series, including his final movie role in Police Story 4: First Strike in 1996. Tung retired from horse racing commentating in 2000. Tung died in 2006 of lung failure.

Biography

Tung was born in Hong Kong in 1933. He started to learn horse riding when he was eight years old. He became an official horse jockey when he was twelve after graduating from the first post war Hong Kong Jockey Club training. In his short horse jockey career, he went to Singapore, United Kingdom and other countries as a professional horse jockey. After learning to be a horse trainer, Tung served in his family's stables as a vice-horse trainer.

In 1967, when Rediffusion Television (now Asia Television) began broadcasting horse racing, Tung was recruited to become a horse racing commentator. Due to his frank assessment and criticism in the horse racing circles, he was respectfully called "Uncle Biu"（彪叔）. Due to the loss of broadcasting rights, Tung was not able to continue as a commentator on television and he joined the Hong Kong Jockey Club as a radio show host. It had an effect on the radio industry as the listenership for Radio Television Hong Kong increased significantly.

After 1997, when Asia Television lost the horse racing broadcasting rights, Tung went to the Macau Jockey Club as a horse trainer. In his first year as a trainer, Tung won 64 races with the horses from his stables. He also worked as a horse racing commentator in Macau until 2000. He returned to Hong Kong as a horse racing commentator for the 2003–04 horse racing season.

In July 2005, Tung retired from the media industry due to heart disease. He had been hospitalized several times due to diabetes and heart disease. On February 16, 2006, Tung was admitted to St. Paul's Hospital on Hong Kong Island due to physical discomfort. On February 22 at 11 pm, due to pulmonary fibrosis leading to organ failure, Tung died in the hospital in the company of loved ones, at the age of 72.

A funeral committee was set up and Tung's wake was held on March 13, 2006, at 4 pm at the Hong Kong Coliseum. Actor and good friend Jackie Chan was one of the pallbearers. In the afternoon the next day, Tung was cremated at Sha Tin's crematorium.

From his four marriages, Tung had five children. His three daughters are married. Both of his sons died, one at a young age, and his second of cancer.