Ti Lung, born Tan Fu-wing in Xinhui, Guangdong, on 19 August 1946, came to Hong Kong as a child. He entered Shaw Brothers' Southern Drama School in 1968 and took his first leading role in 'The Dead End' in 1969. He became a favourite of director Chang Cheh and, opposite David Chiang, starred in martial-arts films such as 'The Blood Brothers', 'Vengeance' and 'The Bodyguard', ranking among Shaw's leading actors and one of Hong Kong's biggest stars of the 1970s; in 1972 he played Wu Song in 'The Water Margin', again alongside David Chiang. In 1973 he received a special award for acting at the 11th Golden Horse Awards for 'The Blood Brothers'; in 1976 he starred in Chor Yuen's 'The Magic Blade', adapted from a Gu Long novel, as Fu Hung-suet. He left Shaw in 1985 and joined Cinema City. In 1986 he played the fallen gangster Sung Tse-ho in John Woo's 'A Better Tomorrow', winning Best Actor at the 23rd Golden Horse Awards and reviving his career; one of his lines in the film became a well-known catchphrase. After his Cinema City contract expired he worked freelance across genres, and in 2000 he won Best Supporting Actor at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards for 'The Kid'. In 2004 the Amiens International Film Festival in France held a retrospective of his films and gave him a lifetime achievement award, and in 2008 he played Guan Yu in 'Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon'. With a career of more than fifty years across martial-arts, crime and drama films, his son Shaun Tam is also an actor.
Ti Lung's partnership with David Chiang in Chang Cheh's films shaped the masculine image of 1970s martial-arts cinema; his Sung Tse-ho in 'A Better Tomorrow' took him back to the top after leaving Shaw and helped drive the hero-film trend of the mid-to-late 1980s, and he later won another Hong Kong Film Award for 'The Kid'.
Achievements
- 1973 · Received a special acting award at the 11th Golden Horse Awards for The Blood Brothers
- 1986 · Won Best Actor at the 23rd Golden Horse Awards for A Better Tomorrow
- 2000 · Won Best Supporting Actor at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards for The Kid