Chen Kuan-tai (Chinese: 陳觀泰; born 24 September 1945) is a Hong Kongmartial arts actor, director, and action choreographer. Chen rose to fame in the early 1970s for his movies with the Shaw Brothers Studio and is credited as being one of the film company's first professionally trained martial artists.[1]
Early life
Chen was born in Guangdong, China. At age 9, he was accepted as a pupil of kung fu practitioner Chen Xiu Zhong, founder of the Tai Sing Pek Kwar Martial Arts Association which specializes in monkey style kung fu.[2] While studying in Pui Kiu Middle School, he excelled in athletics, notably in javelin and soccer. After graduating, he worked as a stuntman and action director, his first project being Chor Yuen's 1970 film, Cold Blade.[3] Chen attracted the attention of Cantonese filmmakers in 1969 after winning a light-weight division championship in Singapore's National Skills Competition.[2][4] He eventually signed with the Shaw Brothers Studio in November of 1971. Unlike his contemporaries, Chen did not adopt a stage name.[3]
Career
Chen had been cast in some two dozen films with Shaw Brothers playing tertiary roles, amongst them Jimmy Wang Yu'sThe Chinese Boxer (1970) and Chang Cheh'sVengeance (1970) before he was cast in the role of Ma Yung Chen by Chang in the latter's kung fu film, The Boxer from Shantung. The film was his first lead role. At the time, Chen had been working with Ng See-yuen on his independent film, The Bloody Fists (1972) and left mid-production to film Chang's movie. Released in 1972, The Boxer From Shantung was a commercial success, netting over HK $2 million in ticket sales and launched Chen into stardom overnight.[4] By the mid-1970s, he had become one of Hong Kong's most famous kung fu stars and achieved several hits including The Teahouse (1974), Heroes Two (1974), Big Brother Cheng (1975), and The Flying Guillotine (1975). At the 20th Asia-Pacific Film Festival, Chen was awarded Most Popular Male Actor by the Taipei Press Association.[5]
In 1976, the actor expanded his career into directing and in February that year, made his directional debut with the comedy film, The Simple-Minded Fellow. The film was a moderate success at the box office.[4] In October, Chen continued directing and filming with independent film companies in Taiwan, resulting in the Shaw Brothers Studio filing and winning a temporary injunction against the actor that prohibited him from making movies with any other company other than Shaw Brothers. Chen was also ordered to pay HK $700,000 in subsidies.[4] The dispute lasted for nearly two years resulting in him briefly leaving Shaw studio after completing Lau Kar-leung'sChallenge of the Masters (1976) and Executioners from Shaolin (1977). Due to his legal dispute, the five films he made in Taiwan, including his second directional project Iron Monkey (1977), were withheld or frequently pulled from theaters. The case was eventually settled in 1978 and Chen would return to Shaw Brothers after signing a new four-year contract requiring him to make at maximum two films per year with the company.[4] Upon his return, Chen starred in Chang Cheh's Crippled Avengers, a film credited as revitalizing the actor's career.[6] He would remain with the Shaw Brothers until their closure in 1985. His 1980 film, Killer Constable, has been praised as one of the studio's best wuxia films.[7][8]
To date, Chen has starred in 164 films,[9] around 80 of which were with Shaw Brothers. He has gone on to direct five more films including Return to Action (1990) while his starring roles often focused on action, crime and, occasionally, comedy. He remains active in the Hong Kong film industry.
Personal life
Chen was close friends with Chang Cheh and Ku Feng. He has cited Chang as his favorite director and credited Ku as helping him learn Mandarin.[3]
Chen has been married four times. In 1976, he married fellow Shaw Brothers actress Cai Zhen-ni (stage name Ying Ying), with whom he has a daughter, Chen Yong-xi. Chen and Cai divorced in the following year. His second marriage was to Taiwanese actress and singer, Fong Yee-chun, with whom he has a son, Chen Jun-xiang. Chen and Fong later divorced. In 1990, he married Zhao Ting-ting in Australia, but the couple divorced a few years later. Chen married his fourth wife Tang Liping in 2017.
He owns a restaurant called 'Jimmy's Kitchen' in Kolkata, India.[10]
In 2012, Chen was expelled from the Tai Sing Pek Kwar Martial Arts Association due to a dispute with his mentor, Chen Xiu Zhong.[2][11]
Filmography
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1969
Two Sisters Who Steal
Thug
Redress
Robber with coloured face
Have Sword, Will Travel
Guard
1970
Modern School Life
Peter
Wong Fei-Hung: Bravely Crushing the Fire Formation
