Godfrey Gao
Taiwanese-Canadian actor and model (1984-2019)
Godfrey Gao (Chinese: 高以翔; pinyin: Gāo Yǐxiáng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ko Í-siông; 22 September 1984 – 27 November 2019), born Tsao Chih-hsiang (Chinese: 曹志翔; pinyin: Cáo Zhìxiáng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chô Chì-siông), was a Taiwanese-Canadian model and actor. Described as Asia's first male supermodel, Gao was the first Asian male model featured in a Louis Vuitton campaign. As an actor, he was known for his roles as Magnus Bane in the film adaptation of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013) and as Wang Lichuan in the Chinese television series Remembering Lichuan (2016).
Early life
Gao was born in Taipei on 22 September 1984. Gao's father was a Taiwanese of Shanghainese descent, and worked as a general manager at Michelin Taiwan; his mother was a Malaysian of Peranakan Chinese descent from George Town who won the Miss Penang beauty pageant in 1970. The youngest of three boys, Gao moved with his family to North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where his parents raised their boys during his childhood. He attended Queensbury Elementary School and Argyle Secondary School, and later studied at Capilano University where the 6-foot-4-inch (1.93 m) Gao played basketball for the school's team.
Career
Gao returned to Taiwan to work as a model in 2004, and was managed by JetStar Entertainment. Gao and fellow male models Sphinx Ting, Victor Chen, and Lan Chun-tien were collectively nicknamed the "Fashion F4", and jointly released a book in 2009. In 2011, he became the first Asian male model for Louis Vuitton.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Godfrey Gao” as taiwanese-Canadian actor and model (1984-2019). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as taiwanese-Canadian actor and model (1984-2019). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5576440. VIAF identifies the subject as 312620360. The Library of Congress control number is no2021110891. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1984, 2019, 2013 and 2016.
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This entry incorporates text from “Godfrey Gao” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.