Ti Lung

Background

Tam Fu Wing (Ti Lung) was born on 19th August in 1946 in a family with 4 members including parents, a younger sister and him in Guangdong Province, China . When he was 4 years old, the whole family moved to live in Hong Kong. He educated at Eton school in Hong Kong. But after his father's dead, he had to terminate his study at the age of 11 to support his family. At 17 years old,he trained as a tailor and studied Wing Chun of the master Jiu Wan to protect himself against street gangs.

Career

In 1968 Ti Lung responded to an advertisement placed by the Shaw Brothers after college, and applied at Shaw Acting Course, and upon completion was awarded a minor role in Chang Cheh's Return of the One-Armed Swordsman starring Jimmy Wang Yu. Chang Cheh immediately recognized his potential and offered him the lead in his next production Dead End opposite Golden Chan Hung-lit, a role which would launch his career as one of the best known faces in classic Wuxia film. At that time, he continued to study Wing Chun under the martial arts master Jiu Wan who described him as having advantages of a strong body, intelligent, good footwork, and he also practices diligently. Besides, he was also taught other techniques such as: Judo, Muya Thai, Takewondo, Wushu... and riding horse. He became a common face associated with David Chiang, Alexander Fu Sheng, Ku Feng, Chen Kuan-Tai, the Venom Mob, and other Shaw Bros stars at the time, often cast as a dashing, noble hero as well as a capable martial artist.

Especially, he collaborated with the most revered Shaw director - Chang Cheh who gave him his explosive start along with fellow actor and frequent co-star David Chiang in over 20 films: Dead End (1969), Have Sword, Will Travel (1969), Vengeance (1970), The Heroic Ones (1970), The Duel (1971), Duel of Fists (1971), The Deadly Duo (1971), Angry Guest (1972), Four Riders (1972), The Blood Brothers (1973), The Pirate (1973).... .Due to their success, the trio were known as “The Iron Triangle”. In this period time, one of the most feature films of Ti Lung is "The Blood Brothers" (1973) which helped him win The Special Award for Outstanding Performance at 11th Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan and the Special Jury Award at the Asian Film Awards in 1973. Soon after, Ti Lung moved forward teaming up with Lar Kar-Leung, Chu Yuan, Sun Chung, and Tong Gai to produce movies still loved today such as: The Magic blade (1976), Clans of Intrigue (1977), The Sentimental Swordsman (1977), The Avenging Eagle (1978), Shaolin Prince (1983)...In 1978, he won Best Actor Award in Asian Film Awards as Black eagle Chik Ming-Sing in The Avenging Eagle in 1978.

After he left Shaw Brothers Studios in the 1980s, Ti Lung's career took a turn for the worse until 1986, when John Woo's A Better Tomorrow cast him opposite Chow Yun-fat in the role of a Triad member. The movie was a box office success and placed Ti Lung back in the public consciousness, although it changed his image from the handsome martial youth to the tortured, would-be hero gangster. It also helped him gain Best Actor Award at 23th Golden Horse Awards in 1986. After that role, Ti Lung's next most recognisable appearance would be with Jackie Chan in Drunken Master II, in which he co-starred as Wong Kei-Ying, father of Chinese folk hero Wong Fei Hung. In 1994-95, Ti Lung lead-starred as Bao Zheng in a Hong Kong version of Justice Pao TV series for TVB. At the time this series was viewing on Hong Kong television, many fans in Mainland China and Hong Kong has compared Ti Lung/TVB's Bao Zheng with Jin Chao-chun/Mainland China's Bao Zheng. Ti Lung also worked with Andy Lau in Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon as the legendary Guan Yu. From there, he has continued to work in television in a variety of roles. He is the uncle of Jerry Lamb and Jan Lamb.

In 1999, Ti Lung had a comeback in movies in the role of Sir Lung in "The kid" film which enabled him achieve Best Supporting actor at 19th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2000. In 2007, he received Life Achievement Award at Golden Bauhinia Awards. Until 2015, he played as Master Lam in a associated film between Hong Kong and Malaysia called "The Kid from the Big Apple". The role made him gain Best Actor Award at 7th Macau International Movie Festival.The sequel of the film will premiere in Malaysia in November 2017.