Sammo Hung is a Chinese actor, producer and director from Hong Kong.
Hung's ancestral hometown is Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. Born Hong Gam-Bou in Hong Kong, both of his parents worked as wardrobe artists in the local film industry and guardianship was thrust upon his grandparents. His grandmother was archetypal martial-arts actress Chin Tsi-ang and his grandfather was film director Hung Chung-Ho.
Hung joined the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School in Hong Kong, in 1961. He was enrolled for a period of 7 years, beginning at the age of 9, after his grandparents heard about the school from their friends. The opera school was run by Master Yu Jim Yuen and as was customary for all students, Hung adopted the given name of his sifu as his family name whilst attending. Going by the name Yuen Lung, Hung became the foremost member of the Seven Little Fortunes performing group, and would establish a friendly rivalry with one of the younger students, Yuen Lo. Yuen Lo would go on to become international superstar Jackie Chan. At the age of 14, Hung was selected by a teacher who had connections to the Hong Kong film industry to perform stunts on a movie. This brief foray into the industry piqued his interest in film and he took particular interest in the operation of film cameras. As the eldest of the troupe, Hung would give his opera school brothers pocket money from his earnings, endearing him greatly to his young friends. Shortly after leaving the Academy at the age of 16, Hung suffered an injury that left him bedridden for an extended period, during which time his weight ballooned. After finding work in the film industry as a stuntman, he was given a nickname after a well-known Chinese cartoon character, Sam-mo.
Many years later, in 1988, Hung starred in Alex Law's Painted Faces, a dramatic re-telling of his experiences at the China Drama Academy. Among the exercises featured in the movie are numerous acrobatic backflips, and hours of handstands performed against a wall. Despite some of the more brutal exercises and physical punishments shown in Painted Faces, Hung and the rest of the Seven Little Fortunes consider the movie a toned-down version of their actual experiences.
Hung appeared as a child actor in several films for Cathay Asia and Bo Bo Films during the early 1960s. His film debut was in the 1961 film, Education of Love. In 1962, he made his first appearance alongside Jackie Chan in the film Big and Little Wong Tin Bar, followed by a role in The Birth of Yue Fei, in which he played the ten year old Yue Fei, the historical figure from the Song Dynasty who would go on to become a famous Chinese general and martyr. The majority of Hung's performance was alongside another actor portraying Zhou Tong, Yue's elderly military arts tutor. In 1966, at the age of just 14, Hung began working for Shaw Brothers Studio, assisting the action director Han Yingjie, on King Hu's film Come Drink with Me. Between 1966 and 1974, Hung worked on over 30 wuxia films for Shaw Brothers, progressing through the roles of extra, stuntman, stunt co-ordinator and ultimately, action director.
As Hung's fame grew, he used his newly-found influence to assist his former China Drama Academy classmates, as well as the former students of "rival" school, The Spring and Autumn Drama School. Aside from regular collaborations with Chan, others such as Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Lam Ching-Ying and Mang Hoi also began to make regular appearances in his films. In 1978 and 1981, Hung made two movies that contain fine examples of the Wing Chun style.
After some relatively poor performances at the domestic box-office, Hung had a dispute with studio head, Raymond Chow. Hung had produced the thriller Into the Fire (1989), but Hung felt Golden Harvest had withdrawn the film from cinemas too soon. The disagreement led to Hung parting company with Golden Harvest in 1991, after 21 years with the company. Whilst continuing to produce films through his own company Bojon Films Company Ltd, Hung failed to equal his early successes. His fortunes improved somewhat as the helmer of "Mr. Nice Guy" (1997), a long-awaited reunion with Chan. In 1998, US television network CBS began to broadcast Martial Law (1998–2000) on Saturday nights, a comedy-drama built around Hung. The hour-long shows were a surprise success and installed Hung as the only East Asian headlining a prime time network series. The television series was executive produced and occasionally directed by Stanley Tong, and co-starred Arsenio Hall. Hung reportedly recited some of his English dialogue phonetically.
During 2000-2001, Hung expressed interest in creating a film adaptation of the video game Soulcalibur.
* Hung's grandmother was martial-arts actress Chin Tsi-ang, who starred in almost 80 films between 1941 and 2002. His grandfather was film director and writer Hung Chung Ho, who directed over 40 films between 1937 and 1950.
* Hung's younger brother, Lee Chi Kit, has worked on almost 40 films, many of which Hung was also involved with. Lee also worked on Hung's Martial Law series. He works primarily as a supporting actor and action director.
* He has three sons and a daughter, Timmy Hung (born 1974), Jimmy Hung (born 1977), Sammy Hung (born 1979) and Stephanie Hung (born 1983) with Jo Yun Ok, whom he grew up with in martial arts training school. He divorced Yun Ok in 1994 and married model and actress Joyce Godenzi in 1995. Godenzi appeared in several of his films including The Haunted Island Eastern Condors (both 1986), and Paper Marriage (1988) prior to the pair becoming a couple. She also appeared in Mr. Nice Guy (1997).
Hung's star, hand prints and autograph on the Avenue of Stars
* Timmy Hung has appeared alongside his father in SPL: Sha Po Lang and Legend of the Dragon, as well as having a recurring role in Sammo's series, Martial Law.
* Sammy Hung appeared as the nemesis to Nicholas Tse's character in the 2007 television series Wing Chun, a remake of the original series broadcast in 1994, and the subsequent film Wing Chun. The series also starred Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao.
* Hung is one of the celebrities honoured on the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong.
* Hung is known for his large frame. Despite this, he is a surprisingly agile and formidable martial artist.
* He has a circular scar on the right-hand side of his face, just above his lip. In the early days of his film career, Hung was involved in a street fight outside a Kowloon nightclub, and was stabbed with a broken cola bottle.