Lee was born in Shanghai in 1952, with ancestral home in Shantou, Guangdong. In 1955, he moved to Hong Kong with his family. Lee did not do so well in school and sometimes skipped classes to help support his family by working. While growing up, he held policemen in high regard and so upon completing high school, he was enrolled into the police force but could not complete the courses during his years of his training. He then decided to pursue a career in acting.
In 1979, he began working in the crime film genre, with The Brothers (1979), a remake of an earlier Bollywood film, Deewaar (1975), about two brothers on opposing sides of the law. In The Brothers, Lee played the role of a police officer, with a police persona he would carry over to his later films.[3]The Brothers later inspired A Better Tomorrow (1986), which involves a similar plot about two brothers.[4]
Still being offered roles in martial arts films, Lee decided in 1978 to form his own production company. One of the earliest products from his company, 1981's The Executor (執法者) (a.k.a. Heroic Cops) which was the first on-screen pairing with Lee and future co-star Chow Yun-fat.
In 1982, Lee directed his first films, One Way Only (單程路), and Funny Boys and then followed it up in 1984 with Law with Two Phases (a.k.a. Law with Two Faces) (公僕). The movie (for which Lee won both the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor and Taiwanese Golden Horse Award for Best Leading Actor for his acting) featured Lee as a hot-headed but just policeman. In later years, Lee has received numerous awards from police organisations for his dedication to showing realistic police procedures and donating money to the families of slain officers.
Law with Two Phases also inspired other directors. Some of the elements used in the shootouts were used by John Woo in his 1986 film A Better Tomorrow (英雄本色) and Law's documentary-like look inspired Kirk Wong to continue with a similar style. Both directors subsequently asked Lee to work with them. Lee then appeared with Chow Yun-Fat in Ringo Lam's 1987 gangster piece City on Fire (龍虎風雲) where he plays a criminal, and later 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, 1989's The Killer. Lee worked with Kirk Wong again in 1994 with Organized Crime and Triad Bureau (a film Lee also produced), where once again, he plays a cop.
Besides cop versus criminal thrillers, Lee acted in comedies too, including Chase A Fortune and Big Score. He also directed two police comedies Cop Busters and Oh My Cops starring Kent Cheng and Wong Ching.
In 1987, Lee formed his second production company, Magnum Films, producing movies such as The Untold Story, Dr. Lamb, Water Tank Murder and Twist. In the late 1980s, Lee was also one of the producers to back Stephen Chow, who was at the time a small-time dramatic actor, but who would then go on to stardom after appearing in a series of "mo lei tau" (無厘頭) comedies. Lee also directed Chow in one of his first comedies, 1990's Legend of the Dragon (龍的傳人).
Though his on-screen output has slowed down in recent years, reduced to mostly cameo appearances in movies like Young and Dangerous 5 or low budget movies, Lee continues with his behind-the-scenes work.
