Yuan Muzhi
袁牧之
Chinese director and actor, 1909–1978. He came from the stage, acted in Shanghai during the 1930s and turned to directing, making Scenes of City Life and Street Angel. After 1949 he served as the first head of the national film bureau and did not direct again.
Career
Yuan was known in the early 1930s as a stage and screen actor, nicknamed the man of a thousand faces for his range. In 1935 he wrote and directed Scenes of City Life for the Diantong company, carrying the story on songs and a peep-show frame; it is generally counted as the first Chinese musical comedy.
He made Street Angel for the Mingxing company in 1937. After the war began he went to Yan'an and worked on Yan'an and the Eighth Route Army, then to the Soviet Union in 1940, returning in 1946 to run the Northeast Film Studio. In 1949 he became the first head of the new government's film bureau, left the post through illness in 1952, and never directed again.
