Sammo Hung

Sammo met Jo Eun-ok in his martial arts school and went on to marry her in 1973. Sammo and Jo Eun-ok are blessed with three sons and a daughter. Their sons Tin-Ming "Timmy" Hung, Tin Cheung "Jimmy" Hung and Tin Chiu "Sammy" Hung were born in 1974, 1977 and 1979 respectively. Their daughter, Chao Yu "Stephanie" Hung, was born in 1983.

Sammo and Jo got divorced in 1994. He then got married to actress Joyce Godenzi in 1995.

Hung was born in British Hong Kong on January 7, 1952. His parents worked as wardrobe stylists in the local movie industry. Hence, Hung had to spend all his childhood with his grandparents who were also artists. He has a brother named Lee Chi Kit, who too is an actor.

In 1961, Hung was enrolled at ‘China Drama Academy’ where he studied for seven long years. He came to known as Yuen Lung, and became the first member of a performing group, ‘Seven Little Fortunes’. The group later welcomed Jackie Chan, who was then known as Yuen Lo.

Before Hung could graduate from the academy, at the age of 16, he suffered an injury which forced him to stay away from action for a while. Despite the injury, he decided to become a stuntman, and soon found himself working in the industry.

He made his debut as a child actor in 1960, but his debut movie, ‘Education of Love’, was released two years later in 1962.

In 1962, he made another appearance in a movie titled ‘Big and Little Wong Tin Bar.’ In the movie, he was seen alongside Jackie Chan. After working in a few movies, Hung became an assistant director, working at Shaw Brothers Studio. He worked in as many as 30 movies for Shaw Brothers as an actor as well as a stuntman. He then assisted several directors.

He then choreographed action scenes for movies, such as ‘The Angry River’ (1970), ‘A Touch of Zen’ (1971), and ‘The Fate of Lee Khan (1973). In 1973, he worked with Bruce Lee in ‘Enter the Dragon,’ and started promoting the amalgamation of martial arts and humor. He continued working in various other movies as well.

In 1977, he played an important character in ‘Shaolin Pilot’, which was produced under the banner of ‘Golden Harvest Production’.

In 1978, he made a movie ‘Warriors Two’, which featured a martial art style called ‘Wing Chun.’ In 1981, he made another movie based on the same martial art style and titled it ‘The Prodigal Son.’

In the 80s, a major transformation took place in the movies based on martial arts. From the long-standing fighting scenes of the 70s to the more realistic and comparatively long fighting scenes of the 80s, there were some apparent changes in the martial arts portrayed on screen. Sammo saw this as an opportunity and experimented with his action choreography in movies, such as ‘Winners and Sinners’ (1982) and ‘Wheels on Meals’ (1985).

In 1983, Hung, Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao came to be known as the ‘Three Dragons’ as they appeared in Jackie’s ‘Project A.’ They once again appeared together in the 1988 movie ‘Dragon Together.’

Hung then introduced other genres like comedy in his movies, which until then had only action sequences. Some of his movies which also had comical sequences are ‘My Lucky Stars’ (1985), ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars’ (1985), ‘Lucky Stars Go Places’ (1986), and ‘How to Meet the Lucky Stars’ (1996).