Wen Yimin 文逸民 (1890 - 1978)

    Wen Yimin was of Manchu ethnicity, born in Beijing.  He joined the Youlian Film Company in Shanghai in 1925, and became the studio's top director in 1927 when he directed "Heroic Son and Daughter," in which he also co-starred with his  future wife, Fan Xuepeng.  The movie had four sequels, and was one of the major successes of the early swordsman genre that became a mania in China at the end of the 1920s.  In 1934, he and Fan moved to the Tianyi studio, where he directed her in such successes as "Shattered Dream in the Dance Hall" and "Mother."  The couple later split up, and in 1939 he moved to Yihua and in 1943 to Zhonghua, two of Shanghai's wartime studios.  At both of these he continued to both act and direct.  In 1947 he left the Chinese mainland and worked for several studios in Hong Kong.  Wen directed his last film in 1959, but continued acting work in Hong Kong and Taiwan into the early 1970s.  Wen Yimin died in Hong Kong on December 22, 1978.  In a career that spanned five decades, he amassed over 100 credits as a director and actor.