The 20 greatest legends of martial arts in cinema
by IgorBalashov | created - 13 Jan 2012 | updated - 28 May 2013 | Publicactors and directors
1. Bruce Lee
Actor | Jing wu men
Bruce Lee remains the greatest icon of martial arts cinema and a key figure of modern popular media. Had it not been for Bruce Lee and his movies in the early 1970s, it's arguable whether or not the martial arts film genre would have ever penetrated and influenced mainstream North American and ...
2. Jackie Chan
Actor | Ngo si seoi
Hong Kong's cheeky, lovable and best-known film star, Jackie Chan endured many years of long, hard work and multiple injuries to establish international success after his start in Hong Kong's manic martial arts cinema industry.
Jackie was born Kong-sang Chan on April 7, 1954, on Hong Kong's famous ...
3. Jet Li
Actor | Huo Yuan Jia
Jet Li born Li Lian Jie in Beijing, China. He started training at the Beijing wushu academy (wushu is China's national sport, largely a performance version of various martial art styles) at age eight. He won five gold medals in the Chinese championships, his first when he was only 11. In his teens,...
4. Chia-Hui Liu
Actor | Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Chia-Hui Liu was born on August 22, 1951 in Guangdong, China. He is an actor and director, known for Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) and Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003). He was previously married to Ma Fei-feng.
5. Sammo Kam-Bo Hung
Stunts | Ip Man
Born in Hong Kong, Sammo Hung's acting career began while he was training in acrobatics, martial arts and dance as a child at the China Drama Academy, and he received acclaim for his performance with a troupe called "The Seven Little Fortunes." He made his feature film debut as an actor at the age ...
6. Donnie Yen
Actor | Ip Man
Donnie Yen was born in Guangzhou, China. His mother, Bow-sim Mark, was a kung fu master and his father, Kylster Yen, a newspaper editor and amateur musician. When Donnie was just two years old, the family moved to Hong Kong and then, when he was 11, to Boston, Massachusetts.
There, Master Bow-sim ...
7. Woo-Ping Yuen
Stunts | Wo hu cang long
Woo-Ping Yuen was born on January 1, 1945 in Guangzhou, China. He is a director and actor, known for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Fearless (2006) and Kung Fu Hustle (2004).
8. Chia-Liang Liu
Actor | Jui kuen II
Chia-Liang Liu was born on August 1, 1936 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. He was an actor and director, known for Drunken Master II (1994), Legendary Weapons of China (1982) and My Young Auntie (1981). He was married to Jing-Jing Yung and Hsiu-Hsia Ho. He died on June 25, 2013 in Hong Kong, China.
9. Ziyi Zhang
Actress | Yi dai zong shi
Ziyi Zhang is a Chinese actress and model. She is best known for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Rush Hour 2 (2001), Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).
She made her feature film debut in The Road Home (1999).
For her work in Memoirs of a Geisha she was...
10. Michelle Yeoh
Actress | Everything Everywhere All at Once
Michelle Yeoh was born in Ipoh, Malaysia. She's the daughter of Janet Yeoh & Kian Teik Yeoh. She's of Hokkien descent, speaking English and Malay before Chinese. A ballet dancer since 4, she moved to London to study at the Royal Academy as a teen. After a brief dance career, she won the Miss ...
11. Lieh Lo
Actor | Tian xia di yi quan
Born in Indonesia to Cantonese parents, Lo migrated to Hong Kong in his teens, where he attended acting school and in 1962 joined the Shaw Bros. film company. By 1969 he had become the first kungfu superstar, preceding the legendary Bruce Lee. He acted in more than 100 films, usually cast as ...
12. Kara Wai
Actress | Wu xia
Kara Hui Ying-Hung was born in Shandong, China; her family moved to Hong Kong in 1966 and at 14 she quit school and started working at nightclubs. Penniless after her family lost their savings from her father's business acquaintances, Hui and her mother and siblings resided in the poor shanty town ...
13. Biao Yuen
Actor | Baai ga jai
Yuen Biao is regarded as one of the most acrobatic martial artists ever. Unfortunately, he is still underrated and not as popular as other contemporaries such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, and Jet Li even though he is the most critically acclaimed out of all of them and the most talented as ...
14. Pei-Pei Cheng
Actress | Wo hu cang long
Pei-Pei Cheng was born on December 4, 1946 in Shanghai, China. She is an actress and producer, known for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Lilting (2014) and Mulan (2020). She was previously married to Wen-Tung Yuan.
15. Tak-Hing Kwan
Actor | Huang Fei Hong hu zhao hui qan ying
When he was 13 years old, he joined an entertainment troupe on tour of Singapore. During these years he began to study performing. In 1932 he debuted in the film "Gor Nui Ching Chiu" ("Sentimental Song of Companions' Tide") playing a bit part, shot in San Francisco (USA). Soon he came back to Hong ...
16. Jimmy Wang Yu
Actor | Du bi quan wang da po xue di zi
Jimmy Wang Yu was born on March 28, 1943 in Shanghai, China. He was an actor and producer, known for Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976), Dragon (2011) and Soul (2013). He was married to Jeanette Lin Tsui. He died on April 5, 2022 in Taipei, Taiwan.
17. Siu-Tin Yuen
Actor | Jui kuen
Already a veteran of the Peking Opera, he starred in countless black and white costume dramas before son Woo-Ping Yuen cast him in _Snake in Eagle's Shadow_ , the film which launched Jackie Chan's career. He then went on to feature alongside Chan and Jeong-lee Hwang(_Snake in Eagle's Shadow_'s main...
18. Stephen Chow
Actor | Kung fu
Stephen Chow was the only boy of his family, and has grown up as a Bruce Lee fan and a martial arts addict. His career started on TV, where he presented a children show ( "430 Space Shuttle" (1983)) and started becoming popular. He got some supporting roles, after that, and won the Taiwanese Golden...
19. King Hu
Director | Xia nü
He was educated in art school in Beijing, left China for Hong Kong in 1949 and entered the film industry in 1951 in the art department. In the 1950s he began acting and in 1958 joined Shaw Brothers as an actor and writer, and later a director. In 1967 he left to start his own studio in Taiwan, ...
20. Cheh Chang
Director | Bao chou
Chang Cheh was the leading Martial Arts director in Hong Kong in the 1970s, now with close to 100 films to his name. His has influenced other directors such as John Woo and Liu Chiau Liang, and made famous such Hong Kong stars as Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok, Fu Sheng and Lung Ti. Chang has declared ...
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