Hong Kong Veteran Actress Lydia Sum Dies

Lydia Shum Din-Ha, known as Fei-fei, or Fatty, and one of Hong Kong's most popular comedian actresses, died of liver tumor and other complications on Tuesday morning in a hospital in Hong Kong.

Local channel Cable TV News said in a report she died of liver tumor in Queen Mary Hospital. Shum, also known as Lydia Sum, was 60 years old.

Shum was born in July, 1947 into a well-off large family in Shanghai and ranked the fifth among the family's eight children. She made her film debut in 1960, joined the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers, a famous film company, as a child actress and rose to stardom with the free-to-air television broadcaster TVB's variety show Enjoy Yourself Tonight, which was hugely popular in Hong Kong for over 20 years. With her signature smile, dark-rimmed glasses and comic hairstyle, Shum established herself as a comic and dramatic actress.

Her successful career spanning almost half a century also included the role as a TV hostess. Shum married Hong Kong actor and singer Adam Cheng Siu-chow in 1985 after they lived together years. The two split up in 1987, only eight months after their daughter and only child Joyce was born.

Shum, dogged by numerous health problems, including chronic ailments such as cholangitis, diabetes and hypertension, was lately admitted to hospitals repeatedly. She was diagnosed with liver tumor and cancer around the gallbladder in 2006 and was discharged from hospital in July 2007 after an operation to remove a third of her liver. But she collapsed at home and was rushed to hospital in October.