Tony Liu

Liu was born in 1952 in British Hong Kong to Hong Kong actress Lai Man, and a sailor, Liu Tao. He was one of seven children born to the couple; he has five sisters and one brother. He grew up in Kowloon City and was playmates with members of the Seven Little Fortunes. As a child, he often visited film sets with his mother and was friends with Bruce Lee and Lam Ching-ying, with whom he practised kung fu. Liu was additionally a Hapkido, jujutsu, and Gōjū-ryū practitioner, attaining the rank of 3rd dan in the latter.

In elementary school, his mother enrolled him in several extracurricular activities and he would attend morning lessons at the Bishop Ford Memorial School and afternoon and evening English classes respectively at the St. Paul and Pui Ching English School.

Liu later attended Tang King Po School although he fared poorly in his studies, preferring to play various sports including basketball and soccer. He also took up jujutsu and karate during this time. In 1970, Liu joined the Hong Kong film production company Golden Harvest. He made his movie debut in a villainous role in the 1971 film The Big Boss opposite Bruce Lee, whom he was reunited with by sheer coincidence having both been cast in the same movie despite having not seen each other since Lee's departure for the States in 1959. Liu went on to appear in three of the Lee's subsequent films – as a martial arts student in Fist of Fury (1972); in Way of the Dragon (1972) as Tony: a restaurant worker and karate practitioner; and in Enter the Dragon (1973) as Mr. Liu: Roper's first tournament opponent.

In 1973, Liu left Golden Harvest and two years later, joined the Shaw Brothers Studio and made his breakthrough as the Chien Lung Emperor in Emperor Chien Lung (1976) and its sequels. He continued acting in movies and various television series produced by ATV before relocating to Mainland China in the 2000s. In 2017, he returned to Hong Kong from Zhongshan to raise his sons. He currently remains active in the movie and television industry.