Yuen Cheung-yan, veteran Hong Kong actor and action choreographer, dies at 69

Yuen died on New Year’s Day at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, actor and film director Lee Lik-chi says.

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Veteran Hong Kong actor and action choreographer Yuen Cheung-yan has died at the age of 69.

Yuen, who was born in Hong Kong in 1957, died at noon on New Year’s Day at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei, according to film director and actor Lee Lik-chi, who announced the news on his Weibo page on Thursday (Jan 1).

“May Master Yuen rest in eternal peace,” Lee said.

He added that a funeral would be held on Feb 1, but gave no further details about the cause of Yuen’s death.

Yuen was the son of the late Hong Kong martial arts actor and choreographer Yuen Siu-tien.

He was also the younger brother of Yuen Woo-ping, a renowned martial arts choreographer and film director who worked in Hong Kong action cinema and later in Hollywood.

Yuen Cheung-yan began his decades-long film career in Hong Kong as a fight choreographer in the late 1960s and formed the Yuen Family production group with his brother.

The Yuen Family helped shape the city’s distinctive martial arts cinema alongside other action icons, such as Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung Kam-bo.

One of Yuen’s best-known roles was the beggar in Stephen Chow’s 2004 film Kung Fu Hustle, in which he tried to sell Chow the “Buddha’s Palm” martial arts manual.

Yuen won the Best Action Choreography award at the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1992 as one of three choreographers for the 1991 film Once Upon A Time in China, starring Jet Li.

Among his other credits as actor or stunt choreographer that were listed on IMDB were 2000’s Charlie’s Angels, and 2003’s Daredevil and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.

This article was first published on SCMP.

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