Al nearly always turns up as a bad guy with his lean muscled physique, incredible agility, amazing martial arts skills, wispy black hair, and Fu-Manchu style mustache! In fact he became so obsessed with the perfection of his art that he would sometimes train six or seven days a week, never attempting to learn a new movement until the previous technique was mastered.His training cost him $10 a month. He’s brutally honest and bears his soul from his family life to health issues to his martial arts background to his professional career. I must concur.Leong sites a couple of “Batman” movies, “Salt,” “Taken,” “Wanted” and “Inception” as films he believes melds a good story with action and not too much sci-fi.Al has always kept his promise to himself and he continued to work on films and on television, always marching to his own drum. A great read,of a man who did it all the hard way, and won.
This is partially because so many came to the states by way of San Francisco, working as immigrants at low paying, backbreaking jobs and the majority of their records, if they had any, were destroyed in the Great San Francisco Earthquake.Leong is very aware of the “type-casting” and how “culturally downgrading” the Asian performer’s role can become. Al worked and practically lived at his shop for just over a year until he had to move on from the auto-body business. This is done to hopefully ward of another stroke that would completely block off the blood flow to the brain.Even though Al’s ability to do certain things has diminished, like being able to ride motorcycles or quad-runners, he isn’t completely out of his game. Leong triumphed in those many tournaments as champion of the day. He is a man who has survived stage-3 brain cancer and now lives with effects of a stroke. He outlined the hazards that were faced on a daily basis, the lack of supervision or foresight by the on-set producers and the consequences of what their actions and lack of actions would birth.When Warner Brothers failed to respond, Al, a man of principle, left the show, unable to associate with people who didn’t care for the expert advice from those they hired. Al Leong moved into the tournament circuit in 1972, at the height of the “Bruce Lee Era” of martial arts popularity in the United States. Asian American actor & stuntman has picked up a cult fan following based around his numerous appearances in high voltage action flicks from the mid-1980s onwards. He collaborated with director John Carpenter in Big Trouble in Little China and They Live. I like those traits in people.When I first asked Al Leong about his involvement in the martial arts community, he was very precise about his feelings and convictions, but before we look at those feelings, I want to take you through Leong’s early life and through his introduction to the martial arts.Al is a complex man, and thoughtful, a man who accepts what the Universe has handed him and seems to have mastered the feeling of self-awareness that’s given him a solid understanding of why he is here.As a youth Al Leong wanted to avoid the pitfalls that many young people were drawn to, so Al decided that he would stay busy and active, and one of the activities he got into was martial arts. Al Leong’s life story teaches us a great life lesson: you are, that which you seek. He’s a man of conviction and pride without being prideful. Chemotherapy as well as radiation treatments were his only hope. Al did it all from ground zero, with a determination that he could. Al is best known for his role as Endo, the Henchman, in Al Leong has a long line of credits: Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Joshua Tree, Big Trouble in Little China, The Scorpion King, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Replacement Killers, Escape from LA, Joshua Tree, The Last Action Hero, Rapid Fire, Death Warrant, Black Rain, They Live, Action Jackson and many more films. Al writes in his book, The running of his paint and body shop would lead to other life-changing events for Al Leong long after the shop closed, and long after he built custom motorcycles and stunt equipment with his friends and partners.As a young man, Al lived in and around Hollywood and of course it seemed only natural to look within the entertainment industry. Wait. I knew him as an expert martial artist and a pro on set. Motorcycling is another of his talents and it is another of his perfect ways to stay in shape as well as to hone his hand-eye coordination and timing. That’s just about as far as you can go…before you “go.”Al had been getting headaches, something that was unfamiliar to him, so when he went to get checked, his doctor immediately sent him to see an oncology specialist, Dr. Solomon Hamburg.Soon after, Al’s vision began to blur. Did he create this, or was he just a random case like so many others?After the treatments at the hospital, Al built himself back up and was surprised that he was able to perform almost everything that he had done before the cancer treatment.