Wine, women and words indelibly printed in the minds of millions

Shortly after James Wong Jim's death in the early hours of yesterday, his son Wong Yu-hong asked friends and fans to remember his father 'for his laughter'. It was an apt epilogue for a man best known for living life to its fullest.

Wong, affectionately known as Jim Suk (Uncle Jim), had a lusty laugh that was hard to forget: an explosive, gleeful cackle that always made you suspect he had caught a deeper meaning to the joke that most had missed.

Old friend and longtime musical partner Joseph Koo Ka-fai remembers Wong as 'natural and unrestrained'. Whatever Wong did, he gave it 200 per cent.

Wine, women and songs - plus several packs of cigarettes a day - sums up his earlier wild days.

In the past few years, however, a new wife and the spectre of cancer kept him on the straight and narrow. In his late 50s, Wong had finally settled down.

To describe him as a 'creative talent' would be an injustice. He was a former ad-man, composer, writer, television host, director, musician, lyricist and sometime actor - and he excelled at everything.

Despite his achievements, Wong never rested on his laurels. Well-read and blessed with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, he was one of the few showbiz personalities in Hong Kong who could argue the finer points of Shakespeare, Henry Ford, Edward de Bono, Bertrand Russell, plus numerous autobiographies at the drop of a hat.