Kevin Lee (actor)
Kevin Lee | |
---|---|
Born | Cambridge, England |
Nationality | British |
Occupation(s) | Actor, martial artist, producer, screenwriter |
Years active | 2005–present |
Notable work | Wolf Warrior, The Battle at Lake Changjin, Snipers, Formed Police Unit, Marco Polo |
Kevin Lee ("凯文·李" [Kevin Lee]. Maoyan (in Chinese). Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Culture Media. Retrieved 31 March 2022.) is an English actor who started his acting career in China. He has played roles in films directed by Jackie Chan, Zhang Yimou, and Wu Jing. Lee typically portrays the main antagonist or supporting roles. His works include Wolf Warrior, The Battle at Lake Changjin, Snipers, Formed Police Unit, and playing a knight in the Netflix series Marco Polo. He also appeared in the Chinese movie SWAT starring Robert Knepper, where Lee plays his right-hand man.
Early life
[edit]Kevin Lee was born in Cambridge, United Kingdom. As a child, he loved watching Chinese martial arts films, including films starring Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li.[1][2]
He gained a degree in IT but decided to study Chinese martial arts in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang province, China, before moving back to the UK. After working as a salesman[3] and financial consultant[1] in the UK, he trained as an actor before moving back to China in 2010.[3]
Film career
[edit]Lee says that he met director Wu Jing while renewing his work visa at the Public Security Bureau in the Chinese capital of Beijing. He went on to star in Wu Jing's Wolf Warrior (2015), the first in the Chinese patriotic Wolf Warrior franchise, and featured in the Stanley Tong film Kung Fu Yoga (2016), starring Jackie Chan, and the Zhang Chong film Super Me (2019). He is best known for playing Crazy Bull in Wolf Warrior and the American colonel Allan Maclean in The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021).[3] He was cast in the Zhang Yimou movie Sniper (2022).[4]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Lee, Kevin (26 January 2022). "China's go-to English bad guy Kevin Lee: 'I'm happy to play a villain'". The Guardian (Interview). Interviewed by Phil Hoad. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
- ^ "The British actor who makes a living getting his 'ass kicked' as the bad guy in Chinese movies". inews.co.uk. 2022-04-16. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
- ^ a b c Tsoi, Grace; Wang, Yitsing (30 March 2022). "Kevin Lee: The Briton who plays the bad guy in China's patriotic movies". BBC News. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
- ^ sinocinema (13 February 2022). "Review: Snipers (2022) | Sino-Cinema 《神州电影》". Retrieved 2022-04-01.
External links
[edit]- Kevin Lee at IMDb
- Kevin Lee at FilmAffinity