My Top 30 Asian Actors
by mostafabeshier | created - 25 Nov 2012 | updated - 08 Apr 2014 | Public
1. Chow Yun-Fat
Actor | Wo hu cang long
Chow Yun Fat is a charismatic, athletically built and energetic Asian-born film star who first came to the attention of western audiences via his roles in the high-octane/blazing guns action films of maverick HK director John Woo.
Chow was born in 1955 on the quiet island of Lamma, part of the ...
2. Lung Ti
Actor | Ying hung boon sik
Lung Ti was born on August 19, 1946 in Guangdong Province, China. He is an actor and director, known for A Better Tomorrow (1986), Drunken Master II (1994) and The Warrior's Way (2010). He has been married to Min-Ming Tao since May 22, 1975. They have one child.
3. Lee Byung-hun
Actor | Dalkomhan insaeng
Lee Byung-hun was born in 1970 in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in a wealthy family, thanks to his father, who was a successful businessman. He never dreamed of pursuing acting until a friend of his mother's suggested it. He auditioned for the KBS television network in 1991 and was accepted. His ...
4. Andy Lau
Actor | Mou gaan dou
Andy Lau Tak-wah, (born 27 September 1961) is a Hong Kong actor, singer-songwriter, presenter, and film producer. Lau has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the mid-1980s, performing in more than 160 films while maintaining a successful singing career at the same...
5. Hiroyuki Sanada
Actor | Tasogare Seibei
Hiroyuki Sanada was born on October 12, 1960 in Tokyo. He made his film debut when he was 5 in Rokyoku komori-uta (1965) (Shin'ichi Chiba played the lead role.) His father died when he was 11. He joined Japan Action Club, organized & run by Sonny Chiba, when he was 12. He 1st became famous as an ...
6. Takeshi Kaneshiro
Actor | Shi mian mai fu
The 1/2 Taiwanese and 1/2 Japanese Takeshi Kaneshiro may have started out as a puerile teen idol in the Chinese entertainment scene, but he's since become a proper film star in his own right. Whether by his own design or not, the boyishness that marked his first steps into showbiz has evolved into ...
7. Tadanobu Asano
Actor | Mongol
Tadanobu Asano's a Japanese film actor. His father suggested he take on what became his first role in the TV show Kimpachi Sensei at 16. His film debut was Swimming Upstream (1990) though his first major critical success was in Shunji Iwai's La cuisine: Fried Dragon Fish (1993). His first critical ...
8. Song Kang-ho
Actor | Salinui chueok
Song Kang-ho never professionally trained as an actor, beginning his career in social theater groups after graduating from Kimhae High School. Later, he joined Kee Kuk-seo's influential theater company with its emphasis on instinctive acting and improvisation, which proved to be Song's training ...
9. Ken Watanabe
Actor | The Last Samurai
Ken Watanabe was born on October 21, 1959 in Uonuma, Japan. Both of his parents were teachers: his mother taught general education and his dad taught calligraphy. He became interested in acting at the age of 24, when a director of England's National Theater Company, where he was studying, told him ...
10. Simon Yam
Actor | Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life
Simon Yam was born 19 March, 1955, also known as Yam Tat-wah, is a veteran Hong Kong-based actor and film producer. He started off as a supermodel before becoming an actor in the mid 1970s. He then signed with the Hong Kong television network TVB, starring and co-starring in a number of television ...
11. Tony Leung Chiu-wai
Actor | Fa yeung nin wah
Tony Leung Chiu Wai was born in Hong Kong on 27 June 1962. He and his younger sister were raised by their mother after his father left them. In 1982, after passing the training courses of TVB, Tony became a TV actor and became famous for his comedy style in such TV shows as Tales of a Eunuch (1983)...
12. Nicholas Tse
Actor | San ging chaat goo si
Nicholas was born in Hong Kong, China. He attended school in Vancouver, Canada. He also attended school for a short time in Phoenix, Arizona before moving back to Hong Kong with his parents Patrick Yin Tse and Deborah Dik, and his sister, Jennifer (Ting Ting). Nicholas started his singing career ...
13. Anthony Chau-Sang Wong
Actor | Mou gaan dou
Anthony Wong Chau-Sang was born to a British father and a Chinese mother. He never knew his father, since the man left his family when Wong was four years old. He trained acting at ATV and later enrolled into the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
After working in several TV Series, he shot to ...
14. Donnie Yen
Actor | Ip Man
Donnie Yen was born in Guangzhou, China. His mother, Bow-sim Mark, was a kung fu master and his father, Kylster Yen, a newspaper editor and amateur musician. When Donnie was just two years old, the family moved to Hong Kong and then, when he was 11, to Boston, Massachusetts.
There, Master Bow-sim ...
15. Choi Min-sik
Actor | Oldeuboi
Choi Min-shik first made a name for himself in theater before breaking into the film world with a role in Park Chong-won's acclaimed film 'Our Twisted Hero' (1992). In the mid-nineties he continued to act in theater productions as well as in several TV dramas, including Moon Over Seoul with Han ...
16. Takeshi Kitano
Actor | Zatôichi
Takeshi Kitano originally studied to become an engineer, but was thrown out of school for rebellious behavior. He learned comedy, singing and dancing from famed comedian Senzaburô Fukami. Working as a lift boy on a nightclub with such features as comic sketches and striptease dancing, Kitano saw ...
17. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Actor | Mortal Kombat
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa got his first big break as an actor when he was cast in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987). A US Army brat, he was born in Tokyo and lived in various cities while growing up. His father was in the army, stationed at Ft. Bragg (NC), Ft. Polk (LA) and Ft. Hood (TX). His...
18. Shin'ichi Chiba
Actor | Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Sonny Chiba was born as Sadao Maeda in Fukuoka, Japan on January 22, 1939. His father was a military test pilot. During his youth, he had an interest in both theater & gymnastics. He was talented enough to make the Japanese Olympic Team until a chronic back injury ended his career. However, he took...
19. Toshirô Mifune
Actor | Yôjinbô
Toshiro Mifune achieved more worldwide fame than any other Japanese actor of his century. He was born in Tsingtao, China, to Japanese parents and grew up in Dalian. He did not set foot in Japan until he was 21. His father was an importer and a commercial photographer, and young Toshiro worked in ...
20. Takao Osawa
Actor | Ôkami kodomo no Ame to Yuki
Takao Osawa was born on March 11, 1968 in Musashino, Japan. He is an actor and producer, known for Wolf Children (2012), Ichi (2008) and Metro ni notte (2006). He was previously married to Kohmi Hirose.
21. Jung Woo-sung
Actor | Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom
Born as the youngest of three in Seoul, South Korea. He made his debut with a TV commercial in 1994 and applied for an open audition for a leading role in The Fox with Nine Tails (1994) opposite 'So-Young Ko'. This role launched his career as one of the most promising actors in Korea. He dropped ...
22. Aaron Kwok
Actor | Dap huet cam mui
Aaron Kwok Fu-shing (born 26 October 1965) is a Hong Kong singer, dancer, and actor. He has been active since the 1980s and to the present. He is considered one of the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Hong Kong. Kwok's onstage dancing and displays is influenced by Michael Jackson. While most of his songs ...
23. Jackie Chan
Actor | Ngo si seoi
Hong Kong's cheeky, lovable and best-known film star, Jackie Chan endured many years of long, hard work and multiple injuries to establish international success after his start in Hong Kong's manic martial arts cinema industry.
Jackie was born Kong-sang Chan on April 7, 1954, on Hong Kong's famous ...
24. Jet Li
Actor | Huo Yuan Jia
Jet Li born Li Lian Jie in Beijing, China. He started training at the Beijing wushu academy (wushu is China's national sport, largely a performance version of various martial art styles) at age eight. He won five gold medals in the Chinese championships, his first when he was only 11. In his teens,...
25. Jin Akanishi
Actor | 47 Ronin
Jin Akanishi made his debut in March, 2006 as a member of KAT-TUN releasing a single album and DVD at the same time. All three releases reached #1 on the Oricon weekly ranking. By April, the single sold over a million copies.
In January 2010, his first Japanese feature film "BANDAGE" was released. ...
26. Shun Oguri
Actor | Godzilla vs. Kong
Shun Oguri was born on December 26, 1982 in Tokyo, Japan. Shun is an actor and director, known for Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), Gintama 2: Rules are Made to be Broken (2018) and Two Homelands (2019). Shun has been married to Yû Yamada since March 14, 2012.
27. Takayuki Yamada
Actor | Jûsan-nin no shikaku
Takayuki Yamada was born on October 20, 1983. He first started out co-starring in a handful of dramas before making a big splash on Waterboys (2003). He followed up with Fireboys (2004), his award winning performance in Sekai no chûshin de, ai wo sakebu (2004), Churasan 3, H2 and legendary ...
28. Masanobu Andô
Actor | Batoru rowaiaru
Masanobu Andô was born on May 19, 1975 in Kanagawa, Japan. He is an actor, known for Battle Royale (2000), Kids Return (1996) and Sukiyaki Western Django (2007). He has been married to unknown since 2014. They have one child.
29. Tsuyoshi Ihara
Actor | Letters from Iwo Jima
Ihara Tsuyoshi was born on November 6, 1963, in Kokura, Kyushu. He grew up in Osaka, and after graduating high school, he joined JAC (Japan Action Club) which is headed by Shin'ichi Chiba (aka Chiba Shinichi), which is a company of stunt and action actors. He made his debut in 1983 in a stage drama...
30. Tony Ka Fai Leung
Actor | Hak se wooi
Tony Leung Ka-fai is a four-time Hong Kong Film Award-winning film actor. As he is often confused with actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Tony Leung Ka-fai is known as "Big Tony", while Tony Leung Chiu-wai is known as "Little Tony", nicknames which correspond to the actors' respective physical statures.
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