Bolo Yen is a Chinese actor, bodybuilder and martial artist. The most famous film roles: Bolo in “Enter the Dragon”, Chung Li in “Bloodsport”, Lee in “Blood Battle”, Moon in “Double Impact”.
Bolo Yen got his nickname “The Beast from the East” because he is always stern, adamant and silent in the frame. His movements are not sweeping kicks, not ostentatious prowess, but short accurate strikes, demonstrating not so much technique as strength of mind.
Childhood:
Bolo Yen (Yang Ci) was born on July 3, 1946 in Guangzhou, his father was an entrepreneur, his mother was a housewife. From a young age, like most boys in Guangdong Province, Bolo Yen practiced kung fu and combined these activities with strength training in the gym, lifting weights. At the age of twenty, Bolo Yen realized that nothing could be achieved in China, the country was too closed, and he decided to leave it. On foot, and then by swimming, he reached Hong Kong.
There he managed to open a bodybuilding school and engage in the education of young athletes. At the same time, Bolo Yen did not forget about his own physical form and constantly trained. He soon won the title of “Mr. Hong Kong” and held it for almost ten years. From the late 1970s to the late 1980s, he repeatedly became the champion in kempo.
The strongman began to be interested in the Shaw Brothers studio (Shaw brothers), the largest at that time among the film studios in Hong Kong, and offer roles corresponding to his appearance.
Movie:
Bolo Yen began his film career with a small episodic role. His first film was The Amazing Swordsman (1970). He showed such a spectacular technique that pretty soon he was literally snapped up and starred in a dozen more such films as brutal villains. Films with his participation were released: “The Heroic Ones (1970)“ The The Deadly Duo (1971) and “King Boxer (1972). The last of these was sold for the first time by the Shaw brothers for display in the United States. The more Bolo Yen built up muscle mass, the bigger his roles became, and the scarier the villains he played became. This would have continued, but the case changed everything.RELATED:
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Acquaintance with Bruce Lee:
On the set of an advertisement for Winston cigarettes, Bolo met the unsurpassed Bruce Lee. They quickly hit it off and became friends. When in 1973 the film “Enter the Dragon” needed an actor to play the bodyguard of the main villain, Bruce Lee, who played the role of this same Dragon, called his friend. According to the scenario, they did not have a chance to grapple with each other. But Bruce Lee promised Bolo Yen to kill him in the next movie. The joint work strengthened the friendship of the two kung fu
masters, they began to train together and expected to star together in the film “The Game of Death”, already in production. It was planned that the film will bring together all the best fighters of different types of martial arts. But a week before the premiere of Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee died suddenly.
Of course, acquaintance with Bruce Lee greatly influenced Bolo Yen and the development of his career. Now he began to play assistants and bodyguards of villains. Six films with his participation were released per year.
Fame:
The American film “Blood Sport” (1988) brought the artist world-wide fame, where he played a brutal fighter of underground competitions in the style of Chong Lee, who could beat his opponent to death. The audience liked the film very much, but the critics did not appreciate it. Now the role of the main villain has been confirmed for Bolo Yen. The positive role was played by Jean-Claude Van Damme. Then followed the films “Double Impact” (1991) and “Tiger’s Claw” (1992), created in the same vein as the previous one. But soon, good guys appeared in Bolo Jena’s creative bank. In the films “Shootfighter (1992)” and “Tc 2000” (1993) he played a positive character and was very proud of these works. Until 1996, the actor starred in sixteen more films, then he took a break and only in 2007 agreed to take part in the joint American-Kazakh film “Close Battle”, but the picture was not finished.
In 2008, Bolo Yen finished his acting career. True, in 2011 he couldn’t help but take part in the documentary project “Jean-Claude Van Damme. Behind closed doors”, dedicated to his partner in several films.
In 2015, he joined the project “The whole world at your feet”, which brought together famous actors of different nationalities. Cinematographers of Kazakhstan wrote a new character in the script specially for him. Bolo Yen told the director of the film that he would like to dedicate his role to Bruce Lee. He recalled one episode from the movie “Way of the Dragon”, in which Lee fights with Chuck Norris, and a cat watches them. Bolo Yen asked to bring a kitten to the stage when the scene of his fight with Serik Bimurzin would be filmed, so that it would be similar to that episode with Bruce Lee. The film was released in 2017 under the title “Diamond Cartel”.
Personal life:
In his personal life, Bolo Yen is nothing like the terrible villains he has played. He is a very respectable husband and father. The family lives in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Bolo Yen has two adult sons, David and Danny, and a daughter, Debborah. It is known about David that he achieved great results in bodybuilding, already at the age of twelve he had a black belt in kung fu. Now he works as a fitness instructor. There is no information about other children. Bolo Yen leads a healthy lifestyle, does not smoke or drink alcohol. Every day he starts with a two-hour workout. The action star is the head of the International Federation of Bodybuilders in Taipei and heads the bodybuilding organization in Hong Kong.RELATED:
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Filmography:
The Wandering Swordsman (1970)
The Heroic Ones (1970)
Boxing King (1972)
Enter the Dragon (1973)
Chinese Hercules (1973)
A Queen’s Ransom (1976)
Bruce Lee The Invincible (1978)
The Dragon, the Hero (1979)
Snake Deadly Act (1980)
Legacy of Rage (1986 )
Bloodsport (1988)
Double impact (1991)
Tiger Claw (1992)
Shootfighter (1993)
The Curse of the Dragon (1993)
TC 2000 (1993)
Shootfighter 2 (1996)
The Ultimate Fighter (2007)
Diamond Cartel (2017)