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Profile | ‘The other woman’, difficult: how Yammie Lam’s screen career soared before tabloid gossip and personal blows brought her low
- Yammie Lam rose through the ranks at Hong Kong broadcaster TVB alongside Maggie Cheung and Carina Lau, and appeared in films and a widely praised drama
- Tabloid newspapers, however, were not kind to Lam – who suffered from mental health problems and was painted as being difficult to work with
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This is the 14th instalment in a biweekly series profiling major Hong Kong pop culture figures of recent decades.
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A talented actress who rose through the ranks at Hong Kong broadcaster TVB alongside the likes of Maggie Cheung Man-yuk and Carina Lau Ka-ling, Yammie Lam Kit-ying suffered a dramatic career decline in the mid-1990s. In 2018 she was found dead at home aged just 55.
Lam’s story was a tragic one, like those of the most notable characters she played on the small screen, and helped shine a light on the ravages of mental illness.
Born in 1963 in Hong Kong, Lam was the youngest of three children. In interviews, she recounted how she was doted on by her father and how her family was very supportive of her decision to be an actress.
Lam entered the entertainment industry in 1983, joining TVB and graduated from its acting training programme a year later alongside Margie Tsang Wah-sin, who became one of Lam’s closest friends. Other notable names in her class were Carina Lau and Sandra Ng Kwan-yue.
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