On May 1, 2018, Sun Yueh, a famous Taiwanese actor who became a Christian, passed away in hospital at 87.
After retiring from movies in 1989, Sun devoted his life to philanthropy. Born in 1930, he confessed that God changed his life, so his perspective of things was totally different from before. "The most important thing is not when you will die, but how we can make full use of today."
The all-around movie star began his acting career in an "accidental" performance. In 1963, he started out playing the role of villains in movies. Later he turned to comedies. He won a Golden Horse Award, the Chinese-language movie world's equivalent to an Oscar, for his supporting role in Storm over the Yang-Tse River in 1969. In 1983, he received the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing?.
Despite the career achievements, he fell into long-term depression and even had thoughts of suicide three times.
Guided by his friend Tao Dawei, a Christian entertainer, Sun started to go to church and became a Christian. Touched by a pastor's sermon, he decided to spend only four months acting and the rest engaging in philanthropy. He was involved in anti-smoking campaigns, blood donations, organ donation, caring for elderly people with dementia, and prisoners.
Having a smoking history of 20 years, he quit smoking at 54 and shared his first-hand experience, appealing to smokers to quit.
People called him "Uncle Sun". Since he was 61, he showed solicitude for cancer patients every Thursday. He added, "Actually, I have regret because I can do nothing but comfort and pray for them. However, I'm not ill. I thought that it might be more convincing if I suffered from cancer."
- Translated by Karen Luo
