Leung Kar Yan aka Beardy from " Eagles Claw " to "True Legend"

Leung Kar Yan, aka 'Beardy' from " Eagles Claw ", " Enter the Fat Dragon ", and " Warriors Two " is truly a Kung Fu Legend that I wanted to make a page for.

He was born January 20, 1949. I couldn't find out what city (so if you know send me a message and I'll add it). I do know that by the age of 20 he was living in Hong Kong for sure because he booked his first gigs at Shaw Brothers studios in 1969.

He wasn't an actual Martial artist though, he just had an amazing talent of mimicking the action directors, which is pretty amazing when you think of his body of work.

He started out with small parts in "Bloody Avengers", "Avenging Eagles" and "Shaolin Martial Arts". He got to play a pretty decent part in " Eagles Claw " which starred Don Wong . Leading to Beardy happily booked leading roles around 1978 when Sammo Hung hired him to play the villain in "Enter the Fat Dragon".

And as with all actors who Sammo took a liking to, Beardy's career was made. Working with other legends such as Lam Ching Ying and Yuen Biao . Since he did a great job on Fat Dragon Sammo gave Beardy an even bigger part playing Mr. Tsang in "Warriors Two". I notice a lot of people consider this movie Leung Kar Yan's best film performance. He got to perform in one of my favorite Sammo Hung movies "Knockabout" next and also "Odd Couple". That pretty much covers the Hung-Beardy collaborations for the 70's. We'll come back to some cool ones in the 90's.

Then things got very cool for him. Beardy then booked the Wong Fei Hong film "Dreadnaught" which also starred Yuen Biao and was directed by Yuen Woo Ping. Who also directed him in "Legend of a Fighter", and "The Miracle Fighters".

Then there seems to be a bit of a break in Beardy's career. til the late 80's. Then Yuen Woo Ping cast him in "Tiger Cage" which also has Donnie Yen in it. And he started the 90's on a strong foot by booking the part of Yun in "Legend of the Dragon" starring Stephen Chow.

Following that with a lead part in Woo Ping's "Last Hero in China" starring Jet Li . And following that with another Jet li movie "Lord of the Wu Tang" where he reunites with Sammo Hung and gets to work with " Matrix Reloaded " star Collin Chou. Side note: Lam Ching Ying has a cameo in this movie too.

Beardy worked pretty steadily through the 90's and in 2005 he starred in a tv series called 'Real Kung Fu' also starring Yuen Biao. Leung Kar Yan claims that it was this series that really got his chops back in shape.

I am somewhat disappointed that Beardy never did another movie with " Eagles Claw " star Don Wong. Since I think both are such strong actors in the Kung Fu genre. Too bad.

In current news, most recently he starred as Su Wan-Kun in Woo Ping latest smash hit "True Legend" 2010 also starring Gordon Liu . Which, if you haven't seen you really should because it is hot!

Beardy has seriously had a pretty solid career when you look at his beginnings with "Eagle Claw" and ending up in "True Legend" which is what he is, a Classic Kung Fu True Legend.

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