Hong Kong TV host and comedienne Lydia Sum, died on Tuesday, February 19, 2008, at 8.38am I read with sadness about her death. Her loud laugh and the joy she bought to people will be much missed. Even Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang mourned her death.
Lydia, affectionately known as Fei Fei (Fatty) or Fei Cheh (Fat Sister) believed to have been battling liver cancer. She also had diabetes and hypertension. It was reported that she had been in and out of hospital since late 2006, when she had a tumour removed from her liver.
Her colleagues remembered her as not just a great star but also a great person. Nancy Sit, Hong Kong actress, who had worked with Lydia since the 1960s, said Sum was an outstanding actress and compere. It's a very big loss to the entertainment circle.
Singaporean actress Koh Chieng Mun, who worked with Sum on Living With Lydia for four years, said she was a very generous and giving person and treated everybody every well and with respect.
Born in Shanghai in 1947, Sum moved to Hong Kong at age 11 and made her movie debut at age 13 as a teen Shaw starlet in When The Peach Blossoms Bloom (1960). A household name in the 1970s as a host of TVB's variety show, Enjoy Yourself Tonight. She had acted in more than 100 Mandarin and Cantonese movies.
Hong Kong actor, Adam Cheng of Swordman Chu and Lydia were married in 1985, after living together for about a decade. The couple divorced just months after their daughter Joyce ( now 20) was born.
Lydia had also shown exceptional dignity and courage as a divorced mother who raised her daughter and maintained a cordial relationship with her ex-husband, singer-actor Adam Cheng.
The comedienne appeared on TV for the last time in November last year when she received a lifetime achievement award at the TVB Anniversary Awards. Her hair and glasses looked the same but she was thinner than before and was in a wheelchair. She had reportedly lost 20kg.
There were tears, not laugher when she said then when the award was presented to her : " I hope my health will progess day by day. I will not give up so easily the TV career that I loved most. Thank you."
To Lydia, thank you for all these decades of entertainment and may you rest in peace.
