Jimmy Wang Yu (1943–2022) was born Wang Zhengquan in Shanghai to a family from Wuxi, Jiangsu, moved to Hong Kong in 1961 and studied at Chu Hai College; an outstanding swimmer and water-polo player, he set records in the Hong Kong Chinese swimming championship. He first appeared on screen in 1964 with a minor part in the Cantonese film The Ghostly Murderer for the Overseas Chinese Film Company and then joined Shaw Brothers as a martial-arts actor. Championed by director Chang Cheh, he shot to fame in The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), released that July and co-starring Pan Yingzi and Chiao Chiao, which became the first Hong Kong film to gross more than HK$1 million and spawned sequels and many imitators; it made him the first star of Chang's new wave of martial-arts cinema, and before Bruce Lee's rise he was the highest-paid action actor in Hong Kong. In 1970 he wrote, directed and starred in The Chinese Boxer, the year's top-grossing Hong Kong film and a landmark in unarmed kung fu cinema. He moved to Golden Harvest in 1971, where his first film, The One-Armed Swordsman vs. the Blind Swordsman, led to litigation with Shaw Brothers; he also co-directed and starred in the wuxia film The Sword that year. He later worked in Taiwan, forming his own company and making films such as One-Armed Boxer, and after leaving Golden Harvest in 1975 joined Lo Wei's independent productions. Retiring from films in the 1990s to do business in Taiwan, he returned in 2011 for Donnie Yen's Wu Xia. In 2013 he starred in Chung Mong-hong's Soul, winning Best Actor at the 15th Taipei Film Awards and a nomination for Best Actor at the 50th Golden Horse Awards; in 2019 he received a Golden Horse lifetime achievement award. He married the actress Lin Cui in 1969, divorcing in 1975; his daughters include the singer Linda Wong. He died of a stroke in Taipei on 5 April 2022, aged 79.
A defining figure of Hong Kong wuxia cinema, Wang's The One-Armed Swordsman was the first Hong Kong film to take more than HK$1 million and fuelled the new wuxia wave; his self-directed The Chinese Boxer (1970) laid the template for unarmed kung fu films and influenced a generation, including Bruce Lee.
Achievements
- 1967 · Rose to fame in The One-Armed Swordsman, the first Hong Kong film to gross more than HK$1 million.
- 1970 · Wrote, directed and starred in The Chinese Boxer, the year's top-grossing Hong Kong film.
- 2019 · Received a lifetime achievement award at the 56th Golden Horse Awards.