![]() They referred to him as “Old Man.” From across the room, he would yell at Leong if his movies were not right and correct him. He studied under kung fu pioneer Grandmaster Ark Yuey Wong, hence the dojo name. His martial arts training started at Ark Yuey Wong’s dojo. Leong was quickly hooked on learning and practising the arts in junior high and continued as he attended Hollywood High School. One of those activities was learning martial arts. So Leong made the decision to keep himself active and busy. He wanted to stay away from the same problems that many youths got into. As well as spending time at the family laundry, Leong wanted to stay out of trouble. In 1962, his family packed up and moved the family and business to Los Angeles. His father worked all the time and Leong spent his formative years in the back of the laundry. Both of his parents were Chinese-American and owned a Chinese laundry. He’s also known as Al “Ka Bong” Leong and Mahomey Bruce (both pretty badass nicknames). I like the way this guy dies'”Īl Leong was born Albert Leong on Septemin St. “I think I am hired to die because they’ve seen me on another show and said, ‘We wanna bring this guy in. ![]() That also means, although menacing, he’s died many times too. He’s arguably one of the most infamous henchmen that action heroes had to fight. He might not be a household name, but he’s been able to leave his mark in movies. Even the normies that aren’t cinephiles like all of us at least recognize him as one of those guys they’ve seen in that one movie. Using a 10-lb weight, I take the fingers from my paralyzed left hand and use my right hand to wrap them around it, one…by…one.”Īfter three sets of 50 curls and three sets of 50 knee bends, he finishes with a six-mile bike ride.Everyone that grew up on the action movies of the 80s and 90s knows who Al Leong is. “I’ll break into three sets of 200, and then I work my arms. The stroke has taken away his ability to practice martial arts, but Leong sticks to a rigid regimen and remains a lethal weapon by working out and finding ways to overcome the effects of the stroke.Įach day starts with 600 situps on a Swiss ball. In 2005, Leong was again dealt a crushing blow after suffering a stroke that paralyzed his right arm. SEE ALSO: ‘Jack Reacher’ Villain Patrick Heusinger Gets Ripped For Big Screen Debut “It was a hard time, but I was far from down and out,” he said. Then his wife left him and took custody of his two kids. A few weeks later he had a bout with shingles. Unsurprisingly, he put a beating on the tumor. At the height of his career, Leong was hit with brain cancer. Louis native’s long career of acting, kicking, and training others has culminated in the aptly named documentary, Henchman: The Al Leong Story, out this month.ĭespite his memorable on-screen battles, it was those he encountered off-screen that presented his toughest challenges. SEE ALSO: The 14 Most Jacked Movie Villains Of All Time The 5’6″ ICU in kung-fu slippers started getting calls to do stunt work and coordinate fight scenes with the top pretty boys at the time: Tom Selleck ( Magnum, P.I.) and David Hasselhoff ( Knight Rider). ![]() Leong won multiple martial arts competitions in the early ’70s, catching the eyes of casting directors who saw a new-and nastier-looking-Bruce Lee. I learned from a true master who never used a phony belt system.” “I spent hours and hours training in kung fu, taekwondo, and other styles-sometimes seven days a week. “I’ve been very lucky to have had a very fulfilling career and to have had the opportunity to make a lot of stars look very bad,” the 64-year-old admits. Show in the 1980s and ’90s, some poor bastard was about to meet the wrong end of a fist, foot, or scythe. ![]() And while you probably never knew his name, you knew that whenever Al Leong showed up in an action movie or TV You watched him wield a hatchet in Big Trouble in Little China, steal candy in Die Hard, and torture Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon. ![]()
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