Alex Man Chi-leung was born in Taiwan in 1957 to a family from Bao'an, Guangdong, and grew up in Hong Kong; born of the Hu family, he took the surname Man from his adoptive father and studied communications at Hong Kong Baptist College for a year. At nineteen he joined Rediffusion Television's acting class, and his break came with the series The Three Master Swordsmen (1977), followed by hits such as The Undercover (1979) and The Great Encounter (1980). He made his film debut in Ann Hui's The Secret (1979), then joined Shaw Brothers, appearing in Buddha's Palm (1982), Bastard Swordsman (1983) and Dream Lovers (1984); his first Golden Horse Best Actor nomination came for Hong Kong, Hong Kong (1983). In the mid-1980s he worked for D&B, earning further Golden Horse Best Actor nominations for Hong Kong 1941 (1984) and Brothers (1986). Skilled at vicious, violent triad figures, he won Best Leading Actor at the 25th Golden Horse Awards for his role as a Taiwanese gang boss in Gangland Odyssey (1988). He has appeared in more than seventy films, mostly triad and crime dramas including Long Arm of the Law Part II (1987), As Tears Go By (1988) and Casino Tycoon (1992). From 1996 he played the triad leader Chiang Tin-yeung in the Young and Dangerous films (1997 and 1998) and later in its 2013 reboot. He showed other registers in Rouge (1988) and Hong Kong Gigolo (1990). After briefly running a clothing business on the mainland he returned to film, television and stage, earning another Hong Kong Film Award supporting-actor nomination for The Bounty (2012) and appearing in I'm Livin' It (2019).
Winning the Golden Horse Best Actor award for Gangland Odyssey, Man linked Hong Kong triad-film acting with Taiwanese gangster material. His Chiang Tin-yeung became the best-known triad boss of the Young and Dangerous series, and his fierce, volatile style set a template for 1990s Hong Kong gangster cinema.
Achievements
- 1977 · Rose to fame with the Rediffusion Television series The Three Master Swordsmen.
- 1983 · Received his first Golden Horse Best Actor nomination for Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
- 1988 · Won Best Leading Actor at the 25th Golden Horse Awards for Gangland Odyssey.