David Chiang Da-wei was born in Shanghai on 29 June 1947 under the name Chiang Wai-nin, with ancestral roots in Suzhou, Jiangsu, into a family of performers: his father was the actor Yan Hua and his mother the actress Hung Wei, while his elder brother Chin Pei is an actor and his half-brother Derek Yee a director. He first appeared on set as a child at four and starred in Street Urchin in 1960. He joined Shaw Brothers in the 1960s, becoming a favourite of director Chang Cheh. Teamed with Ti Lung, the pair were known as the 'Iron Blood Duo' and starred in wuxia films such as 'The Heroic Ones' (1970), 'The New One-Armed Swordsman' (1971) and 'The Blood Brothers' (1973), making him one of the biggest martial-arts stars of the 1960s and 1970s. In Chang's 'Vengeance' (1970) he played Guan Xiao-lou, a young man avenging his brother, and won Best Actor at the 16th Asian Film Festival, becoming the first Hong Kong actor to take that prize. He turned director in 1974 with 'The Drug Addicts', also making the comedy 'A Mad World of Fools' and 'The Condemned' that year and becoming one of Shaw's youngest directors; he married actress Lee Lin-lin the same year. In 1975 he appeared with Ti Lung and Lisa Lu in Li Han-hsiang's 'The Last Tempest'. From the late 1970s he moved into television with RTV, ATV, TVB and HKTV while continuing to act in films. In 2021 TVB gave him its Lifetime Achievement award, presented by Chin Pei and Ti Lung, and in 2024, at 76, he won Best Supporting Actor at the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards for 'In Broad Daylight'.
David Chiang was the first Hong Kong actor to win Best Actor at the Asian Film Festival, and his 'Iron Blood Duo' pairing with Ti Lung became one of the defining partnerships of Chang Cheh's wuxia cinema, shaping later Chinese-language action stardom. Moving from Shaw Brothers lead actor to director and television performer across six decades, he remained a sought-after presence in front of the camera, winning a Hong Kong Film Award for Best Supporting Actor at the age of 76.
Achievements
- 1970 · Won Best Actor at the 16th Asian Film Festival for 'Vengeance', the first Hong Kong Asian Best Actor
- 1974 · Directed his debut 'The Drug Addicts', becoming one of Shaw's youngest directors
- 2021 · Received TVB's Lifetime Achievement award
- 2024 · Won Best Supporting Actor at the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards for 'In Broad Daylight'