Yu Menglong Named One Of 100 Most Handsome Faces Amid Death Cover-Up Claims

In the fickle world of online rankings, beauty is often a transient metric. Yet, for the millions of fans of the late Chinese actor Yu Menglong, a recent accolade from the global critics at TC Candler has felt less like a vanity project and more like a final, defiant act of remembrance. Months after a tragedy that silenced one of the industry's most promising voices, Yu has been posthumously named the fifth most handsome man in the world for 2025.

The inclusion of Yu in the prestigious 100 Most Handsome Faces list served as a sobering pause in the year-end festivities. Beneath his striking portrait, TC Candler's organisers etched a tribute that cut through the usual glitz of the countdown: 'Gentle soul that deserved better,' they wrote, alongside the pointed phrase, 'Truth Justice Answer, In loving memory.' The tribute also prominently shared a global petition, which has garnered over 738,000 signatures, demanding a transparent investigation into the tragedy.

The Unanswered Questions Surrounding Yu Menglong

Yu's looks, which made him famous in dramas like Eternal Love and Go Princess Go, are what the ranking is based on. The tribute, on the other hand, shows that there is still a dark cloud of doubt hanging over his death. The actor, who was 37 years old, died on September 11, 2025, when he fell from a building in Beijing where he lived.

Authorities quickly ruled the event an accident, citing drunkenness and a lack of good judgment. But people got even angrier when a supposed forensic autopsy report came out that showed injuries like a broken nose, multiple fractures, and signs of sexual assault that experts say don't fit with a simple fall.

Further complicating the official narrative is a harrowing final text message Yu reportedly sent to his mother just before his death, in which he claimed people were coming to kill him and described money being transferred to him as 'dirty.'

Beneath the surface of the state-ruled 'accident,' a labyrinth of suspicious details has emerged, ranging from alleged leaked audio to reports of a broken window mesh in a room the actor had reportedly locked from the inside.

The speed and severity of the subsequent censorship—where social media posts questioning the timeline were systematically scrubbed—have only fueled the belief that the actor's passing was far from a simple tragedy.

For months, a global fanbase has refused to let the matter rest, using every available digital channel to demand a full, independent inquiry into the circumstances that led to that fatal September morning.

A Bittersweet Legacy For Yu Menglong

Yu's fifth-place position puts him in the company of some of the world's most recognisable stars, including Jacob Elordi and Henry Cavill. He was part of a strong showing for Chinese talent this year, joining the likes of Song Weilong, Dylan Wang, and Hou Minghao. Topping the list at number one was Zhang Zhehan, an actor who has faced his own significant hurdles within the industry and was described by the critics as possessing 'Elegance, Grace, Class, Talent.'

For those who followed Yu's career from his early days on the reality singing competition My Show in 2007 to his breakout as the Ninth Prince in Go Princess Go, the TC Candler ranking is a bittersweet validation. It serves as a reminder of a career that was defined by a quiet, refined charisma—a 'gentle soul' that was seemingly at odds with the murky, high-stakes world of the entertainment industry's power structures.

The timing of the accolade is particularly poignant, coming just as civilian investigators published a 40-page dossier challenging the police timeline and highlighting a 'two-day gap' they believe was used to clean the crime scene.

As the industry moves into 2026, the 'Truth Justice Answer' sought by Yu's supporters remains elusive. Yet, by securing a spot amongst the world's most admired faces, the actor's memory has been granted a global platform that censorship cannot easily reach. He remains, as his fans frequently say, a figure of grace whose story ended far too soon, and whose final chapter has yet to be fully written.