Bolo Yeung

Bolo Yeung — Biography

Former competitive bodybuilder Bolo Yeung, born Yeung Sze, counts among martial-arts cinema's best-known screen villains. He won international fame as the henchman Bolo in Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon, a character whose name he took as his screen name, and Western audiences remember him as Chong Li, Jean-Claude Van Damme's opponent in Kansporu (Bloodsport). He is nicknamed "The Beast from the East".

Born in China's Guangdong province, Yeung began kung fu at ten, also learning Tai chi and Wing Chun. He relocated to Hong Kong to escape hardship and political pressure, took up bodybuilding there, and was crowned Mr. Hong Kong in 1970, a title he held for ten years. His physique got him cast as villains in Shaw Brothers films such as The Heroic Ones and The Deadly Duo. He met Bruce Lee on the set of a Winston cigarette commercial, and their friendship led to Enter the Dragon in 1973. Over the following decade he appeared in many Bruce Lee imitation films, such as The Clones of Bruce Lee, and in Golden Harvest comedies including My Lucky Stars and Millionaires Express; he directed once, with Fists of Justice in 1977.

The 1988 hit Kansporu was his breakthrough in the West. The friendship he formed there with Van Damme led to their reunion in İkiz Kan (Double Impact), in which he played Moon. He also made several films with the Canadian filmmaker Jalal Merhi, starting with Fearless Tiger and continuing with Tiger Claws.