About people named Wang Gang

[yukabacera]

There are at least 4 or 5 distinct Mainland actors named Wang Gang (王剛). I'm making this post because I saw the issue raised in THIS old thread, and it's far from solved.

number one: Wang Gang (王剛) b. 1948 in Heilongjiang

Represented by this page in our database: https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml? ... ay_set=eng
The photos on that page are all of him. I don't know when he debuted, so there is no convenient cutoff point for potential roles of his. I wasn't able to find an official profile or filmography, either. The writing credits do not belong to him, but to a writer also named Wang Gang. I'm not sure, but I don't believe this is the same writer: https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml? ... ay_set=eng
No Regrets About Youth (1991) is probably not him, but I don't know who it is. As for the others, I can't say because I can't get my hands on most of these newer movies to confirm.

number two: Wang Gang (王剛) b. 1959 in Liaoning

Represented by this page in our database: https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml? ... ay_set=eng
The photos on that page are all of him. He debuted around 1983 and was still active as late as at least 2009.
The Examination 1977 and A Prostitute & the Rafters roles and photos were previously assigned to Wang Gang number one, as were several other roles.

number three: Wang Gang (王剛) b. 1940

Represented by this page in our database: https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml? ... ay_set=eng
This is where it gets complicated. Chinese websites assign the role of the Japanese general in the movie Man Behind the Sun (1988) to Wang Gang (王剛), b. 1940, a Harbin theater actor. The problem is that the photos they have of him don't look like the actor in the photos in our database - most prominently, that Wang Gang has attached earlobes. Confusingly, though, he does resemble the actor in our photos. The Wang Gang with attached earlobes also appears in The Last Effort (1992) as well as Signal Left, Turn Right (1996), which are currently assigned to Wang Gang number two and number one respectively:


I would assume it was simply a mixup, but even this 2004 article about this Wang Gang being confused for another Wang Gang mentions his role in Man Behind the Sun (1988): http://ent.sina.com.cn/2004-02-03/0912290375.html
I feel like there's no way these two are the same person, though, and I assume the photos in our database aren't misidentified, since it looks like the same person in all three. Any ideas?

number four: Wang Gang (王剛)

Represented by this page in our database: https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml? ... ay_set=eng
He is mostly a theater actor, but he has been in at least one or two movies. His official profile: http://www.bjry.com/actor/html/2015/06/20150605116.html
The Twelve Citizens (2015) role and photo was previously assigned to Wang Gang number one.

others:
actor Wang Gang (王罡 - homophone) https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml? ... ay_set=eng
sound tech Wang Gang (王鋼 - homophone) has also appeared as an actor: https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml? ... ay_set=eng
actor Wang Gang (王綱 - homophone) https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml? ... ay_set=eng

Apart from the mysterious identity of Wang Gang number 3 (and 3.5?), the primary issue here is checking which roles assigned to Wang Gang number one are really his, and which might be one of the other actors with the same name. If he's not the same as the other writer (I wasn't able to find out), writer Wang Gang might need splitting as well, but his credits definitely need a move either way.

[yukabacera]

I added a couple of more roles to Wang Gang number 2, and found out that he has at least one valid credit as 王鋼. Right now, with the exception of The Birth of New China and The Last Effort (see above) all the roles on his page should be correct for him. The issue with the messy first page, as well as with numbers 3 and 3.5 still remains. Obviously there shouldn't be any issue with just splitting them - clearly they look like different people - but that article muddies the waters. Any ideas? I see on Douban that Wang Gang number 3 appeared on a 2006 episode of the CCTV6 show 流金岁月, which might shed some light on his career, but I can't find that show anywhere online and I can't watch it on M1905.

[STSH]

Very impressive. You have found a mainland analogue of John Jones .......

[yukabacera]

Thank you, STSH. Anyway, I'm posting to report that the "mystery" of Wang Gang number 3 has been solved. I managed to catch the CCTV6 show he appeared in, and while they didn't talk about Man Behind the Sun specifically, they showed some stills from it as part of a career retrospective montage, including a production photo in which he has extremely obvious prosthetics on his ears. I feel silly for not thinking of it myself, but once you know what you're looking for, it becomes quite obvious he had ear prosthetics in all three of the movies, and in fact they often looked different from scene to scene. I've reassigned The Birth of New China (finally managed to spot and confirm his role and presence) The Last Effort and Signal Left, Turn Right to his page. Wang Gang number 1 still remains.