Next person biography:
Danny Lee Sau-Yin was born in 1952 in Shanghai. Despite not excelling in school, he dropped out to support his family by working. Growing up, he admired policemen and attempted to join the police academy after high school, but ultimately failed to complete the courses. In 1970, he enrolled in the TVB acting school and secured his first major film role in the 1972 film Water Margin.
Lee went on to star in Shaw Brothers' 1975 Hong Kong Tokusatsu-style superhero movie and camp classic The Super Inframan, playing the Chinese superhero himself. Following the death of Bruce Lee in 1973, Lee was one of the many stars in Hong Kong who attempted to fill "The Dragon's" shoes, even portraying the legend himself in Bruce Lee and I.
By the late 1970s, Lee had grown tired of Kung Fu movies and began exploring other genres, such as the 1977 film The Mighty Peking Man, a King Kong ripoff now considered a camp classic. In 1978, he formed his own production company, which produced the 1981 film The Executor, starring Lee alongside future superstar Chow Yun-Fat.
In 1982, Lee made his directorial debut with the film Funny Boys, followed by the 1984 film Law With Two Phases, which cemented his image in the consciousness of Hong Kong. The violent film, for which Lee won both the Hong Kong Film Award and Taiwanese Golden Horse for his acting, featured Lee as a hot-headed but just policeman, a role he has reprised to this day.
Law With Two Phases also inspired other directors, with elements used in the shootouts being adopted by John Woo in his breakthrough 1986 film A Better Tomorrow, and the documentary-like look inspiring Kirk Wong to continue with a similar style. Both directors subsequently asked Lee to work with them.
Lee appeared in Ringo Lam's 1987 gangster classic City on Fire, playing a rare role as a criminal, and then appeared in John Woo's benefit project for Chang Cheh, Just Heroes (1987),which Lee also co-directed. Lee's next project with Woo was his most famous, 1989's The Killer, originally intended for another actor, but both Woo and Chow Yun-Fat insisted on casting Lee due to his reputation as an upstanding police officer, which they believed was crucial for the role.
In 1987, Lee formed his second production company, Magnum Films, and became a powerful producer in Hong Kong. Many of Magnum's films are ultra-violent "Category III" films, which have become classics in their own right.
