Jimmy Wang Yu

Jimmy Wang Yu (28 March 1943 – 5 April 2022) was a Hong Kong-Taiwanese martial artist, actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter.

Born Wang Zheng Quan (王正權) in Shanghai in 1943, Wang and his family moved to Hong Kong when he was still a child.

From a young age, he trained in karate, tai chi, Wudang quan and taijijian.

For a time he served in the National Revolutionary Army, and was also a competitive swimmer and a car racing enthusiast.

Wang joined Shaw Brothers Studio in 1963 as a stunt performer, and had his first acting role in the 1965 film Temple of the Red Lotus.

Initially a contract player for Shaw Brothers, he rose to fame for his starring role in One-Armed Swordsman (1967) and its sequels, and was one of the first major stars of martial arts and wuxia cinema.

In 1968, he acted with Cheng Pei-pei in the wuxia film Golden Swallow, directed by Chang Cheh.

At the height of his fame in the 1970s, he was the highest-paid martial arts actor in the world.

According to The New York Times, Wang was "the biggest star of Asian martial arts cinema until the emergence of Bruce Lee."

Wang Yu was well-known for his volatile personality and ties to organized crime off-screen.

But beginning in the 1970s, Wang's star began to be eclipsed with the entry of new actors, many with superior martial arts training such as Ti Lung, David Chiang, and especially Bruce Lee, whose role in The Big Boss (1971) revolutionised the martial arts film genre.

In the late 1970s, Wang helped Chan when then the latter sought his help in settling a dispute with Lo Wei that allegedly involved Triads.

Following that, Wang starred in many other wuxia films, including One Armed Boxer (1971), Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976) and Return of the Chinese Boxer (1977).

If One-Armed Swordsman was the movie that launched Wang's acting career, The Chinese Boxer was the film that sealed his fame in Hong Kong cinema.

The latter has been credited as being the first Hong Kong martial arts film that kickstarted the unarmed combat genre, mainly kung fu.

It also triggered a phenomenon that filled the ranks of many Chinese martial arts associations across Southeast Asia.

Chinese youths, in their bid to emulate Wang, took to punching sandbags, and reading up on the history of Shaolin Kung Fu.

Controversy dogged Wang after the fame that exploded with The Chinese Boxer.

He broke his contract with the Shaw Brothers Studio, and was promptly slapped with a lawsuit.

The legal tussle that ended in the studio's favour led to Wang being banned from making films in Hong Kong.

Wang then looked to Taiwan for better career prospects, linking up with Golden Harvest and other independent film outfits.

His subsequent works were mostly filmed in Taiwan.

With the success of The Chinese Boxer, Wang stood unchallenged in Southeast Asia for a short time, as the Chinese actor with the most formidable fists and legs.

In 1975, Wang starred in the Australian action film The Man from Hong Kong.

In 1976, Wang appeared alongside Jackie Chan in Lo Wei's Killer Meteors.

On April 23, 1976, Wang invited Hong Kong film mogul Charles Heung and several friends, including Bamboo Union members, to the Xinghua Pavilion restaurant in Taipei.

Several members of the Four Seas, a rival triad, were also present.

Wang allegedly instigated a fight between the two groups that ended in the deaths of Four Seas members Qiu Wenxiang and Gao Wenzhang.

The incident attracted much media attention, and Wang fled to Hong Kong to avoid arrest.

He was eventually arrested and sentenced to a five months in prison, which was reduced to a fine on appeal.

He was a suspected member of the Bamboo Union triad, and was charged in the 1981 murder of several Four Seas Gang members, though he was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.

On January 10, 1981, Wang and a group of friends were eating at the Tianchu Restaurant on Nanjing Road, when they were ambushed by members of the Four Seas triad in an apparent assassination attempt.

Chan eventually repaid the favour with his roles in Wang's films, Fantasy Mission Force (1982) and Island of Fire (1990).

In 1986, Sammo Hung cast Wang as Wong Kei-ying (the father of Chinese folk hero Wong Fei Hung) in Millionaire's Express.

In the years that followed, Wang kept a low profile, making a rare public appearance in 2002 at the funeral of Chang Cheh.

Wang often associated with members of the Bamboo Union, a Taiwan-based triad, though his status as a made man was never confirmed.

In a 2007 interview with the Liberty Times, Wang claimed that Bai Wan-hsiung, the Kuomintang Director of Mainland Affairs, had asked him and another Bamboo Union member to assassinate Democratic Progressive Party chairman Hsu Hsin-liang in 1979.

The Kuomintang long held ties to Bamboo Union.

At the time, Hsu was living in exile the United States.

In the same interview, Wang implicated the Kuomintang in the murder of Henry Liu.