Former Miss Singapore Universe organiser Errol Pang died Monday morning at age 76. He was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in April.
He was one of the first people I interviewed as a journalist in Singapore after returning from America in 1993.
I was working on my first major magazine feature on the state of the republic's (non-existent) movie industry back then and Pang had produced what was touted as “Singapore’s first full-length English film”, Medium Rare, in 1991.
Local actress Margaret Chan (yet to star in Channel 5’s Masters Of The Sea) was in it. Curiously, she also got a co-writing credit.
The movie was poorly received, but Pang was surprisingly open and good-natured about it. He seemed like someone who was always happy to talk to the press for some publicity.
Since then, I’ve bumped into him once or twice over the decades, although I doubt he remembered me.
But I will always be grateful for his generosity with his time and humour with a youngish magazine writer 25 years ago.
Below are clips of the article from Man Life & Style magazine:
While Medium Rare is mostly forgotten now, its place in Singapore's cinematic history is undeniable, alongside Mee Pok Man and Money No Enough.
And Pang was its progenitor.
