Chalong Pakdeevijit

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Chalong Pakdeevijit (Thai: ฉลอง ภักดีวิจิตร; 1931–2024), also known as Ar Long or Philip Chalong, was a Thai film and TV director, producer, cinematographer, and voice actor. He was born on March 18, 1931, in Bangkok and began his career as a cinematographer in 1950, directing his first film in 1968. He became famous for the Thong (Gold) series, starting with Thong in 1973, followed by Thong 2 (1982), Thong 3 (1988), and Thong 4 (1990). He helped bring foreign actors to Thai cinema and earned the nicknames "King of Action" and "Action Film Tycoon" for his energetic, explosive style.

In the late 1990s he moved into television, producing and directing popular Channel 7 miniseries such as Raya (1998), Chumphae (2007), and Sao Har (2011), which were among the top-rated Thai series. He was named National Artist of Performing Arts in 2013. He married Sumon Pakdeevijit in 1966; she died in 2014. He remarried Pimsupak Insee in 2014. He had three children: Gun, Cherd, and Boonjira.

Chalong Pakdeevijit died on September 13, 2024, at Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok, at age 93, from pulmonary edema. His last film was Sud Keed: Mungkorn Chao Phraya 2 in 1996, and he remained active in the industry through 2024, leaving a lasting legacy as a prolific creator of Thai action cinema and television.