Bolo Yeung

Kung fu and iron

Yeung Sze, known on screen as Bolo Yeung, was born in 1946 in Guangdong province. He took up martial arts around age 10 in Canton under several kung fu masters, while also lifting weights. After moving to Hong Kong he won the Mr. Hong Kong bodybuilding title in 1970.

Shaw Brothers cast him as hulking villains, often foreigners, and he also worked as a stuntman before leaving the studio in 1971. He is credited as Yang Sze, Yang Si or "Chinese Hercules".

Bolo, Bruce Lee's heavy

Bruce Lee knew him from a Winston cigarettes commercial; they became friends and sometimes trained together. Lee cast him as Bolo, the most feared of Han's men, in Enter the Dragon (1973). The name stuck, and the film made him known worldwide.

Bruceploitation followed, with The Clones of Bruce Lee and Enter the Game of Death among dozens of kung fu B-movies. In the 1980s he worked for Golden Harvest, in Sammo Hung's Millionaires Express (1986), and faced Brandon Lee in Legacy of Rage (1986).

Chong Li and the Van Damme years

His best-known Western role is Chong Li in Bloodsport (1988), the Kumite champion feared for maiming opponents, opposite Van Damme's Frank Dux. He rejoined Van Damme in Double Impact (1991) as Moon. Video-market action followed: Breathing Fire, Ironheart, Tiger Claws, TC 2000, Shootfighter and, in 2007, Blizhniy Boy: The Ultimate Fighter.

An archetype

Never a headliner, he defined a character action cinema still uses: the silent fighter with a bodybuilder's frame who relies on strength and grabs rather than speed.