Ko Yuan-cheng (28 February 1950 – 17 February 2014), better known by his

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

s Frankie Kao and Kao Ling-feng, was a Taiwanese singer, television presenter and actor. His birth name was 葛元誠 (

Pe̍h-ōe-jī (; ; ), also sometimes known as the Church Romanization, is an orthography used to write variants of Southern Min Chinese, particularly Taiwanese and Amoy Hokkien. Developed by Western missionaries working among the Chinese diaspora in Sout ...

: Kat Goân-sêng;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

: Gé Yuánchéng) and he employed the moniker The Frog Prince (青蛙王子;

: Chheng-oa Ông-chú;

: Qīngwā Wángzǐ) for more than three decades which was given to him by his close friend,

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolish (as in slapstick), or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audienc ...

Ni Min-jan Ni Min-jan (; 30 April 1946 – April 2005) was a famous well-rounded Taiwanese celebrity and entertainer. TV and movie star. Comedian and recording artist. Cross-talk(Xiangsheng) and play writer. In 1979, he teamed up with Zhang Kui, Zhang F ...

. He also had a friend named

Chang Fei Chang Fei ( ; born Chang Yan-ming (); 4 December 1951) is a Taiwanese singer and television personality. Early life He was born Chang Yan-ming in Taipei, Taiwan, on 4 December 1951, His eldest sister Chang Yan-qiong was a singer formerly kno ...

, who is the host of ''

Variety Big Brother Variety Big Brother (, literally Big Brother of Entertainment), also known as Big Brother's Return, was a television show hosted by Chang Fei, a.k.a. Fei Ge, which screened on Taiwanese channel China Television on Saturday evenings, Singapore Med ...

''. He was known for the song "Flaming Phoenix" (火鳳凰). He was born in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

parents of Chinese descent During the height of his career, Frankie Kao commanded an appearance fee of

NT$ The New Taiwan dollar (code: TWD; symbol: NT$, also abbreviated as NT) is the official currency of Taiwan. The New Taiwan dollar has been the currency of Taiwan since 1949, when it replaced the Old Taiwan dollar, at a rate of 40,000 old dollar ...

240,000 per night. He exited from his singing career at his peak and ventured into business. His business venture went badly and he returned to his entertainment career. Kao died of leukaemia on 17 February 2014 at the age of 63.

Filmography

Films

Television

References

1950 births 2014 deaths Taiwanese Mandopop singers 20th-century Taiwanese male singers 20th-century Taiwanese male actors 21st-century Taiwanese male actors Taiwanese male film actors Deaths from cancer in Taiwan Deaths from leukemia Taiwanese people of Vietnamese descent Male actors from Kaohsiung Musicians from Kaohsiung {{Taiwan-singer-stub