Sammo Hung
洪金寶
Hong Kong actor, director and fight choreographer trained in Peking opera, choreographer of the films Ip Man (2008), Ip Man 2 (2010) and Kung Fu Hustle (2004).
Quick Facts
Hong KongBiography
Sammo Hung, in Chinese 洪金寶 (Hung Kam-bo), was born on 7 January 1952 in British Hong Kong. He is an actor, stuntman, director and fight choreographer.
In 1961, at the age of nine, he began seven years of training at the China Drama Academy of the Peking opera led by master Yu Jim-yuen, where he took the name Yuen Lung (元龍). He became a leading member of the Seven Little Fortunes (七小福) group, in which he competed with the younger Jackie Chan. In Korea he studied hapkido under master Ji Han-jae and earned a black belt.
From 1966, at the age of fourteen, he worked for Shaw Brothers, and from 1970 for Golden Harvest. As a stuntman he worked on Enter the Dragon (1973) and completed the fight choreography for Bruce Lee's Game of Death (1978). He made his directorial debut with The Iron Fisted Monk (1977), often described as the first true kung fu comedy. He portrayed the Wing Chun style in his own film The Prodigal Son (1981), for whose choreography he won a Hong Kong Film Award in 1983.
He also choreographed Winners and Sinners (1983) and Wheels on Meals (1984); from Project A (1983) he formed the trio Three Dragons with Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao. He choreographed Kung Fu Hustle (2004), Ip Man (2008) and Ip Man 2 (2010); with Ip Man he helped shape the on-screen image of Wing Chun and won a Golden Horse Award. Between 1998 and 2000 he starred in the American series Martial Law, and in 2024 he received a lifetime achievement award at the Asian Film Awards.
Associated Martial Arts
Filmography
A screen role does not mean the person actually practises the art — that is listed above.