Biography
Born into an acting family, his father and his mother were performers in Shanghai, before moving to Hong Kong in the late 1940's. He, also, became a gifted actor in his own right. Director Chang Cheh , brought him through the ranks at Shaw Bros' in 1966 (working as a stuntman) and the rest is history. Though not an expert kicker, his movies centered on his acting and his ability to use "Brains-over-Brawn" and they were always entertaining. Though, many don't know it, he has actually, appeared in films for Shaw studios as a youth with his real-life brother Chin Pei.
During his time as Shaw Bros' he would gain status working as an unknown until director Chang sought to cast him in a number of films. It was during this time that the director would pair him with another "up-and-coming" actor Ti Lung, whom he thought had a lot of potential as well. Together, they were featured in numerous films, with Chiang usually playing the lead roles in the majority of them. Though people still wrestle with which Kung-fu film was made first, Chang's film Vengeance was released before Jimmy Wang-Yu's The Chinese Boxer (which was made first). Chiang won the "Best Actor Award" for the films Vengeance and The Generation Gap. He also won a Special Award for the film, Blood Brothers.
His star was definitely on the rise and with the departure of Jimmy Wang-Yu to rival studio Golden Harvest, the door was opened for a new leading man at the studios. Director Chang took this chance to put one of his ideas into motion. He had the first $1-million hit in Hong Kong, with the film One-Armed Swordsman; so he reworked the script and came up with a vehicle for David, in hopes of capitalizing on his successful Asia-Pacific Film win. He began filming the New One-Armed Swordsman (later called Triple Irons) with David as the star and actress Li Ching (an Oscar-winner herself), as his love-interest. After the success of this film, he and Ti Lung would continually be cast in "film-after-film" together and would go on to become the studio's greatest film duo.
They would continue as a duo until the mid 70's when friction between them (and fellow actor Fu Sheng) would eventually spit them up, with both trying to "re-invent" themselves to get away from former comparisons of their earlier works together. He would go on the star in films for various directors, churning out mediocre-to-excellent films such as Death Duel, Shaolin Handlock, and Deadly Mantis (probably his best since leaving Chang Cheh). From here, he would do a lot of films for Independent companies, never achieving the type of success he found at Shaw Brothers. Films like 6 Directions Of Boxing, King Of Fists & Dollars, and The Red Phoenix were some of his more under-rated works, never really seeing the light-of-day (by fans), until after mid-80's.
To his credit, he has been one of the most famous stars to come out of Shaw studios and has left a body of work that any star can be thoroughly proud of. I liked his work in Blooded Treasure Fight (and sought this film for years after I saw it) and even Lost Secrets Of Kung Fu, but that was the type of actor he was - one that you just couldn't count out, no matter what mediocre films he may have shot. Yet, when he appeared in Bloody Tattoo and the film Deadly Challenger he had done a complete 360-degree turn (to fans delight) and gave us some of his best work since his days at Shaw Brothers. He will always be one of the best actors the studio ever produced, with one of the most loyal following in Hong Kong Cinema history.