Andy Lau, Jackie Chan & Stephen Chow Said To Be Attending Stanley Ho’s Funeral

The funeral of late Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho, who passed away on May 26 at the age of 98, will be held tomorrow (Jul 10) at Hong Kong Funeral Home, and if recent media reports are true, it would be a very star-studded affair.

According to Apple Daily, rumour has it that celebrities like Andy Lau, Jackie Chan, and Stephen Chow will be showing up to pay their respects at the service, although at the moment, it’s not clear whether they would they actually turn up. The public memorial for the casino king takes place today (Jul 9).

In addition to his connections in the business world, Stanley was also known to have a close relationship with the entertainment industry. He reportedly became friends with Andy when the latter was tapped to star in 1992 film Casino Tycoon, which was inspired by Stanley’s very epic life.

On the eve of the day shooting began, producer Jimmy Heung approached Stanley to ask if he approved of having Andy play the character that’s loosely based on him. Fortunately, Stanley agreed with the casting choice, and the movie went into production and made HK$18.6mil (S$3.3mil) at the box office, much to his delight.

The father-of-17 and his fourth wife, Angela Leong, also went to Andy’s concert in 2001, where he praised the Heavenly King for his impressive tango and Latin dance moves (remember, Stanley and Angela are avid dancers themselves).

Stanley was known to be an avid fan of Stephen’s work as well. When he was hospitalised after a bad fall in 2009, he asked his daughter, singer-actress Josie Ho, to bring him DVDs of Stephen’s movies to watch to pass the time. Back then, Stanley teased that he would only watch Josie’s films after he had finished watching all of Stephen’s (bad dad joke alert).

Stephen, on the other hand, is believed to have slipped a subtle reference to the gambling king into his 1996 comedy classic, The God of Cookery, through a plate of egg fried rice. What’s the link, you may be wondering? Well, it’s said that Stanley once splurged HK$5,000 (about S$900) on a plate of egg fried rice by top chef Dai Lung, who makes a cameo in the film, and so Stephen wrote that storyline into the movie.

Speaking of splurging, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that no expense was spared when it came to organising Stanley’s final farewell. The funeral hall, for one, was decorated with over 10,000 white roses that reportedly cost as much as HK$2mil (S$359,000).

Temperature-checking stations — ‘cos there is still a pandemic going on — were also set up in the lobby, and 20 security guards were hired and stationed around the area.

Photos: Netflix, CN Entertainment, PBE Media, TPG