Some Facts
Attended Peking Opera school, run by Yu Jim Yuen who moved to Hong Kong from Mainland China. By the time Yuen Biao, Jackie Chan, and Sammo Hung graduated, Peking Opera performances were declining in popularity (a fictionalized account is told in Painted Faces 1988, starring Sammo Hung as their infamously strict teacher Yu Jim Yuen.) These graduates skilled in Peking Opera and martial arts then entered film business to apply their life-long skills, transforming the waning swordplay and (old school) kung fu genres in 1970s-1980s, and inventing the now classic, multi-genre modern action of 1980s.
"Yuen" is the surname of his Peking Opera school teacher, Yu Jim Yuen. Many school graduates take the name as their stage name, in honor of their teacher. "Biao" means a youthful tiger in its prime.
Introduced nephew Edmond Fung Yuen-Man to film production. Fung has now directed Futago (2005).
Biao has worn spectacles since adolescence. Although in most movies he does not not wear spectacles he can be seen wearing his own pairs in Wheels on Meals (19834), Mr Vampire 2 (1986), and Hunted Hunter (1997).
Is one of the rare HK performers who have a more loyal following in Japan than in his native Hong Kong. Thus the many Japan/HK co-productions in his work (The Setting Sun 1992, Bakayaro! 1991, No Problem 2 2002.) For the Kung Fu-soccer comedy The Champions (1983), he was promoted as a wholesome, super-athlete version of Japan's pop idol culture. As the norm for idols in Japan, Yuen released several music albums despite his rudimentary grasp on Japanese and pop music. Documented as recently as 2004, Yuen still makes the occasional personalized replies to his Japanese fans.