Hongkong actor Ray Lui, 63, shot to fame in 1980 when he starred opposite Chow Yun Fat and Angie Chiu in TVB drama The Bund, which, for those of you not, um, vintage enough to know, is a zeitgeist-changing, mega-popular drama series about gang members in Shanghai.

The Bund made Ray one of the most-in demand actors of his generation but believe it or not, he almost did not become an actor because TVB had deemed him “not good looking” enough.

Lucky for Ray, he had support from veteran actor Lee Ka Ding, who admired the former’s work attitude and decided to help him climb the ranks. Ray would remain eternally grateful to Ka Ding, who is affectionately known as Ding Ye (or Grandfather Ding), and once proclaimed: “If there’s no Ding Ye, there would be no Ray Lui today”.

Ray with veteran actor Lee Ka Ding

While Ray’s career at that time went swimmingly well, his love life was more like diving into wading pool. In 1988, he married actress Kathy Chow but they divorced just five months later. In his autobiography, Ray said that at that time both he and Kathy “did not understand love”.

In 1996, he married singer Cally Kwong but that marriage lasted just a year. He would go on to describe that union as a “failed marriage” and that it would totally change his beliefs in love and marriage.

“We started fighting about the small things shortly after falling in love with each other, Ray once revealed. Cally is someone who is soft on the outside and tough on the inside, and is very opinonated. And I didn’t learn anything from my previous marriage. When we fought, both of us wouldn’t relent. But no matter how much we quarreled, we still had feelings for each other.”

Eight months after his second divorce, the Asian financial crisis happened and Ray, who had to pay alimony for his two previous marriages found himself in deep financial trouble, so much so, that his savings were allegedly almost wiped out.

But it was also during this time that he met the woman who would change his life. In 2001, Ray married Chinese businesswoman Yang Xiaojuan, who by then was already pregnant with their son, in France. Xiaojuan is 14 years younger than the actor and was very well-connected in the financial world. She had a reputation as a tough and capable businesswoman and she was once the president of the Shenzhen General Chamber of Commerce.

With her help, he successfully reversed his fortunes by making really astute investments and is said to be worth NT$4.3bil (S$200mil) now. “I don’t have as good foresight as my wife. She is really good with investments and I can't hold a candle to her. Basically, I gave all my money to my wife to invest, and I just take some money to use as pocket money,” he once said.

Photos: Ray Lui's Weibo