ACTOR LED WAY FOR MARTIAL ARTS FILMS

Jimmy Wang Yu, who in the 1960s, in movies like “The One-Armed Swordsman,” became the biggest star of Asian martial arts cinema until the emergence of Bruce Lee, died April 5 in Taipei, Taiwan. He was 79.

His daughter Linda Wong announced the death but did not give the cause. Yu had reportedly had strokes in 2011 and 2016.

As a seminal figure in martial arts, known for bringing hand-to-hand combat into the forefront, Yu paved the way for stars like Lee and Jackie Chan who found great success outside Asia. After Yu’s death, Chan said on Facebook, “The contributions you’ve made to kung fu movies, and the support and wisdom you’ve given to the younger generations, will always be remembered in the industry.”

Yu worked in the 1960s for the major Hong Kong studio owned by the Shaw brothers, starring in their films “The One-Armed Swordsman” in 1967 and “Golden Swallow” and “The Sword of

Swords” in 1968.

In that period, Yu said in a 2014 interview with Easternkicks, a website devoted to Asian cinema, he was frequently in the news for getting into fights.

“How did I get popular in Hong Kong?” he said. “I think one reason — it’s because I’m a street fighter. I think maybe a lot of people say, ‘I see you fight in the movie, is he really a good fighter or not?’”

“The Chinese Boxer” (1970) — which Yu directed, and in which he starred as a man who takes revenge on Japanese thugs who have destroyed a Chinese kung fu school — was probably his most influential film. With its focus on hand-to-hand combat rather than the sword fighting and fantasy elements then commonplace in Hong Kong action movies, it helped transform the genre.

Yu was born Wang Zhengquan on March 28, 1943, in Shanghai and moved with his family to Hong Kong when he was young. Before his movie career, he was a swimming champion and served in the Chinese army.