Born Cheung Yam-pang on Gulangyu in Xiamen, Chaplin Chang was sent to Britain for naval training after the Pacific War broke out and settled in Hong Kong with the fleet in 1949. In the early 1950s he worked in the Amoy section of the Voice of America, which led to cameo work in Amoy-dialect films, and in 1958, under the name Cheung Pang, he starred for director Gu Wenzong in Seventeen Eighteen in Bloom, becoming a full-time Amoy-film actor and singer. As Shaw Brothers entered Amoy production he appeared in films such as The Illegitimate Daughter and Hong Kong Sister (both 1959), but a chance casting in the British production Ferry to Hong Kong (1958) brought him into Western film-making. Fluent in English, he joined Salon Films and became an assistant director on Lord Jim (1965). He founded his own company in 1968 and worked as assistant director or production manager on international productions including The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Emmanuelle II (1975) and Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978), also assisting King Hu on The Fate of Lee Khan (1973) and The Valiant Ones (1975), producing The Way of the Dragon (1972) and serving as assistant director on Enter the Dragon (1973). He later wrote books on Bruce Lee and died on 29 July 2020.
Chaplin Chang moved from Amoy-film actor to producer and assistant director on international productions, one of the few local film workers long involved in foreign shoots in Hong Kong, and he travelled to Italy with Bruce Lee during the making of The Way of the Dragon. In later life he gathered his photographs and memories into books on Bruce Lee, leaving a first-hand record of the exchange between Hong Kong cinema and international production.
Achievements
- 1958 · Under the name Cheung Pang, starred for Gu Wenzong in Seventeen Eighteen in Bloom and became a full-time Amoy-film actor.
- 1965 · Joined Salon Films (Hong Kong) as assistant director on Lord Jim.
- 1972 · Produced The Way of the Dragon on location in Italy and was assistant director on Enter the Dragon the following year.