Sammo Hung

Samuel "Sammo" Hung Kam-bo (born 7 January 1952) is a Chinese actor, martial artist, film producer and director, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema, and as a fight choreographer for other actors such as Jackie Chan.

Hung appeared as a child actor in several films for Cathay Asia and Bo Bo Films during the early 1960s.

Hung joined the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School in Hong Kong, in 1961.

He was enrolled for a period of seven years, beginning at the age of 9, after his grandparents heard about the school from their friends.

The opera school was run by Master Yu Jim Yuen and as was customary for all students, Hung adopted the given name of his sifu as his family name whilst attending.

Going by the name Yuen Lung (元龍), Hung became the foremost member of the Seven Little Fortunes (七小福) performing group, and would establish a friendly rivalry with one of the younger students, Yuen Lo.

Yuen Lo would go on to become international superstar Jackie Chan.

At the age of 14, Hung was selected by a teacher who had connections to the Hong Kong film industry to perform stunts on a movie.

This brief foray into the industry piqued his interest in film and he took particular interest in the operation of film cameras.

As the eldest of the troupe, Hung would give his opera school brothers pocket money from his earnings, endearing him greatly to his young friends.

Shortly before leaving the Academy at the age of 16, Hung suffered an injury that left him bedridden for an extended period, during which time his weight ballooned.

After finding work in the film industry as a stuntman, he was given a nickname after a well-known Chinese cartoon character, Sam-mo (三毛; Three Hairs).

His film debut was in the 1961 film Education of Love.

In 1962, he made his first appearance alongside Jackie Chan in the film Big and Little Wong Tin Bar, followed by a role in The Birth of Yue Fei, in which he played the ten-year-old Yue Fei, the historical figure from the Song Dynasty who would go on to become a famous Chinese general and martyr.

The majority of Hung's performance was alongside another actor portraying Zhou Tong, Yue's elderly military arts tutor.

In 1966, at the age of just 14, Hung began working for Shaw Brothers Studio, assisting the action director Han Yingjie, on King Hu's film Come Drink with Me.

Between 1966 and 1974, Hung worked on over 30 wuxia films for Shaw Brothers, progressing through the roles of extra, stuntman, stunt co-ordinator and ultimately, action director.

In 1970, Hung began working for Raymond Chow and the Golden Harvest film company.

He was initially hired to choreograph the action scenes for the very first Golden Harvest film, The Angry River (1970).

His popularity soon began to grow, and due to the quality of his choreography and disciplined approach to his work, he again caught the eye of celebrated Taiwanese director, King Hu.

Toward the late 1970s, Hong Kong cinema began to shift away from the Mandarin-language, epic martial art films popularized by directors such as Chang Cheh.

In a series of films, Hung, along with Jackie Chan, began reinterpreting the genre by making comedic Cantonese kungfu.

While these films still strongly featured martial arts, it was mixed with a liberal dose of humour.

Hung choreographed Hu's The Fate of Lee Khan (1973).

In the same year, Hung went to South Korea to study hapkido under master Ji Han-jae.

Also in 1973, he was seen in the Bruce Lee classic, Enter the Dragon.

Hung was the Shaolin student Lee faces in the opening sequence.

In 1975, Hung appeared in The Man from Hong Kong, billed as the first Australian martial arts film.

In 1977, Hung was given his first lead role in a Golden Harvest production, in the film Shaolin Plot.

His next film, released the same year, was also his directorial debut, The Iron-Fisted Monk, one of the earliest martial art comedies.

In 1978, Raymond Chow gave Hung the task of completing the fight co-ordination for the re-shoot of Game of Death, the film Bruce Lee was unable to complete before his death in 1973.

Hung is one of the pivotal figures who spearheaded the Hong Kong New Wave movement of the 1980s, helped reinvent the martial arts genre and started the zombie-like jiangshi genre.

He is widely credited with assisting many of his compatriots, giving them their starts in the Hong Kong film industry, by casting them in the films he produced, or giving them roles in the production crew.

Both Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan were often addressed as "Dai Goh", meaning "Big Brother", until the filming of Project A, which featured both actors.

As Hung was the eldest of the kung fu "brothers", and the first to make a mark on the industry, he was given the nickname "Dai Goh Dai", meaning "Big, Big Brother", or "Biggest Big Brother".

Born in Hong Kong, both of his parents worked as wardrobe artists in the local film industry and guardianship was thrust upon his grandparents.

His grandmother was archetypal martial art actress Chin Tsi-ang and his grandfather was film director Hung Chung-ho.

Many years later, in 1988, Hung starred in Alex Law's Painted Faces, a dramatic re-telling of his experiences at the China Drama Academy.

Among the exercises featured in the film are numerous acrobatic backflips, and hours of handstands performed against a wall.

Despite some of the more brutal exercises and physical punishments shown in Painted Faces, Hung and the rest of the Seven Little Fortunes consider the film a toned-down version of their actual experiences.