Everything about Yuen Wah totally explained
Yuen Wah (born
September 2,
1950) is a
Chinese action film actor,
action choreographer and
stuntman who has appeared in over 160 films since his first,
Fist of Fury, in
1972 and over 20 television series.
Yuen was born in
Tianjin,
China. A member of the
China Drama Academy, the
Peking Opera School from which
Jackie Chan,
Sammo Hung,
Yuen Biao,
Yuen Qiu and
Corey Yuen received their training, they all trained under Master
Yu Jim Yuen (于占元
p.y. Yu Zhanyuan) in
Hong Kong (see
Seven Little Fortunes). Yuen Wah took his stage surname as a tribute to his teacher. Jackie Chan has said that Yuen was respected for his
martial arts ability by his fellow students.
Known for his extreme agility and acrobatic skills, he started his movie career by becoming
Bruce Lee's stunt double in the movies
Fist of Fury and
Enter the Dragon. He also made his debut as an actor in
Fist of Fury, as a
Japanese person who asks Bruce Lee's character to crawl like a dog and is soundly beaten for it. One of the more memorable movies that he acted during this period in is
Dragons Forever with classmates Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and
Yuen Biao.
Yuen's versatility, his lean, wiry frame and later, distinctive moustache would get him cast in a number of villainous roles, sometimes with a comedic twist. He began to receive a number of roles in
Shaw Brothers Studio. Later on he branched on to comedies, all with great success. In the
1990s he lessened his movie output and instead began focusing on TV roles, in
TVB, starting in 1996 as a
Taoist priest fighting
Jiang Shi vampires in the series
The Night Journey. His goofy and endearingly scroogy image earned him popularity in the Hong Kong TV circle and he's now perhaps better known there for his TV roles then for his previous film characters. He has now appeared since appeared in around 20 different TV series.
In 2004, Yuen was cast as the
Landlord in
Stephen Chow's comedy film
Kung Fu Hustle. His fellow colleagues during the
Hong Kong Film Awards took the opportunity to award him with the Hong Kong Best Supporting Actor that same year.
Yuen made his Western film debut in
Aiming High in 1998. He is due to appear in another English language production, the forthcoming
Baz Luhrmann period film,
Australia alongside
Nicole Kidman and
Hugh Jackman.
Filmography
For more information, see Yuen Wah filmography.
Yuen Wah has starred in more than 60 films and worked on over 160. In the early 1970s, during the early part of his career Yuen worked as a stuntman and extra, later progressing to stunt co-ordinator / action director roles, as well as full-fledged acting parts.
During the 1980s he made a number of appearances, primarily as villainous characters in the films of his former-
Peking Opera school friends,
Sammo Hung,
Jackie Chan and
Yuen Biao.
From the mid 1990s, whilst still appearing in a significant number of films, Yuen embarked on a television career in Hong Kong. To date, he's appeared in 23 different series for broadcaster
TVB. He also appeared in a show for
Taiwanese channel
CTS - a remake of the film
A Chinese Ghost Story, entitled .
Further Information
Get more info on 'Yuen Wah'.
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