Run Run Shaw, one of the pioneers of the 20th century Chinese film industry and a producer on “Blade Runner,” has died at age 106.
The death of Shaw, who was born in 1907, was reported by multiple Chinese media outlets.
He founded the Shaw Organization with his brother Runme in 1926 in Shanghai, and later renamed it as Shaw Studios. By 1958, it was Asia’s largest studio.
Also read: China Box Office Grows Nearly 30% Thanks to Home-Grown Films
The Shaw brothers’ company came into its own in the 1960s and 1970s and was influential in both the Asian and Western film industries. The studio produced more than 1,000 films and invested numerous others, including a number of martial arts films and Ridley Scott’s cult classic “Blade Runner,” according to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, which gave him a special award just last month.
Shaw was also founder in 1967 of Television Broadcasts, Hong Kong’s dominant free-to-air broadcaster and still a major content producer and talent management in the region. After a 44-year career, Run Run Shaw stepped down from all his TVB posts in December of 2011 and sold his entire 26 percent stake in TVB to a group of investors for HK$6.26 billion.
He is survived by his wife, Mona Fong Yat-wah, with whom he had three sons and two daughters.