The Chinese Hercules
Bolo Yeung Sze, Chinese born 1946, age 76.
Bolo managed to win the love of fans by playing mostly bad characters.
He began his martial arts training at the age of 10 in Canton and took an interest in bodybuilding . In the mid-60s, he fled from communist China to Hong Kong. He became a coach and opened his own bodybuilding school.
His strong corpulence, his brute face and his obvious martial skills quickly attracted the attention of the big studios, particularly the Shaw Brothers.
In 1970, he made his debut with Shaw Brothers in The Wandering Swordsman.
And then won the Mr. Hong Kong title in the bodybuilding tournament, which he continued to confirm for 9 consecutive years.
After playing in 16 Shaw Brothers films as a villain, like The Heroic Ones (1970), The Deadly Duo (1971), Five Fingers of Death (1972), the aspiring actor decided to leave the studio. The turning point in Bolo’s career was meeting Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon (1973), he played Bolo, which he later chose for his stage name.
After that he played tens of roles in 70s and 80s until his breakout film Bloodsport (1988), then he became world-famous.
Bolo played the good guy in 3 movies: Shootfighter II (1996), TC 2000 (1993), and Fearless Tiger (1991).
In 2006, Yahoo conducted a survey asking users who is the best actor in Kung Fu films, and Bolo took second place right after Bruce Lee.
Bolo has appeared in (92) films and 4 as martial arts director.
Bolo is currently the chairman of the Hong Kong Gym Business Association, and the Team Manager of the Taipei international Bodybuilders Squad. He also conducts master classes, celebrity stakeouts and autograph sessions.
Since 2018, Bolo has been living in California.
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