TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Award-winning Taiwanese actor Chen Sung-young (陳松勇) died at the age of 80 on Friday (Dec. 17).

Chen died at 3:07 p.m. on Friday at the Taoyuan Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital in Guishan District after battling a number of ailments for several years, reported SET News. His condition had deteriorated over the past month and although doctors said that his life could be prolonged through dialysis, according to a friend, he refused medical treatment and opted for hospice care instead.

Chen's career began in 1970, and he played a variety of colorful rules in many popular dramas and movies over the decades, including a major role with Jet Li (李連杰) in the Hong Kong action comedy "Fong Sai-yuk." In 1989, he won the Golden Horse Award for the Taiwanese historical drama "A City of Sadness" directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien.

He retired from the entertainment industry in 2000 and his health has steadily declined since. He suffered a stroke in 2006, a gastric ulcer in 2009, and a fall and pulmonary edema in 2016.

The actor never married, but in recent years became extremely close to his Indonesian caregiver identified as "Yule," who he affectionately referred to as his daughter. Chen previously stated that he had gifted her NT$1,200,000 (US$43,000) in gold jewelry and in an interview with Apple Daily, he said that when Yule returns to Indonesia or he dies, she will inherit NT$2 million to help buy land to start a business in her home country.