Tan Tao-liang (; Tan Dao-liang; born 22 December 1947) is a Chinese-South Korean

martial artist Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the pres ...

and former film actor. He used numerous pseudonyms throughout his career, mostly Delon Tam, Dorian Tan Tao-liang, Tan Tao-liang, Delon Tan, Dorian Tan and Delon Tanner. Noted for his leg holding and hopping skills, Tan was nicknamed "Flash Legs". In his later life, Tan taught martial arts, notably to John Liu Chung Liang,

Yuen Biao Yuen Biao (born Ha Lingchun; 26 July 1957) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist and stuntman. He specialises in acrobatics and Chinese martial arts and has also worked on over 80 films as actor, stuntman and action choreographer. He was one o ...

Ke Huy Quan Ke Huy Quan ( ; ; born August 20, 1971), also known as Jonathan Ke Quan, is an American actor. List of awards and nominations received by Ke Huy Quan, His accolades include a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award. Born in Vietnam, Quan immig ...

The Goonies ''The Goonies'' is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed and co-produced by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus based on a story by Steven Spielberg and starring Sean Astin, Josh Brolin (in his film debut), Jeff Cohen ...

, and

Shannon Lee Shannon Emery Lee Keasler (born April 19, 1969) is an American actress, businesswoman, singer, and martial artist. She is the only living child of actor and martial artist Bruce Lee and retired martial arts teacher Linda Lee Cadwell, and is t ...

, daughter of

Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was an American-born Hong Kong martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy which was formed from ...

Early life

Tan was born on December 22, 1947, in

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. He is a Chinese Korean, aka ''hwagyo,'' whose parents fled mainland China after the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

broke out. At age 7, Tan began studying martial arts including

taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

hapkido Hapkido ( , , ), also spelled ''hap ki do'' or ''hapki-do'' is a Korean martial art. It is a hybrid form of self-defense that employs joint locks, grappling, chokeholds, throwing techniques, kicks, punches, and other striking attacks. ...

and

kung fu Chinese martial arts, commonly referred to with umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater Ch ...

. Of these styles, he favored taekwondo as it "allowed full-contact sparring and competition." In an interview, he said he liked high kicks because in taekwondo scoring, a kick to the head is worth two points. Tan won many championships including a world title. At age 23, Tan began teaching taekwondo at the

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; zh, t=國立臺灣大學, poj=Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k, p=, s=) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. Founded in 1928 during Taiwan under J ...

. He went on to teach action star John Liu.

Career

In 1973, Tan was noticed by filmmakers and got offered a role in the film ''The Hero of Chiu Chow.'' Afterward, he continued to star in action films while spending most of his time teaching martial arts. 1976 was when Tan achieved breakthrough success by starring in

John Woo John Woo Yu-sen ( zh, t= ; born 22 September 1946) is a Hongkongers, Hong Kong film director known as a highly influential figure in the action film genre. The recipient of various accolades, including a Hong Kong Film Awards, Hong Kong Film Award ...

's '' Hand of Death,'' which also featured early performances by

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born Chan Kong-sang; 7 April 1954), known professionally as Jackie Chan,; is a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker, known for his slapstick, acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically perf ...

Sammo Hung Samuel "Sammo" Hung Kam-bo ( zh, t=洪金寶, j=Hung4 Gam1-bou2; born 7 January 1952) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film producer and Film director, director, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema, and as a figh ...

and

. After completing ''Last Breath'' in 1984, Tan retired from acting and moved to

Monterey Park, California Monterey Park is a city in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, approximately east of the Downtown Los Angeles civic center. It is bordered by Alhambra, California, Alhambra, East Los Angeles, ...

, where he opened a taekwondo school in 1987 under the name Delon Tan. He eventually relocated to Taiwan, with his students taking over his studio in Southern California, and later returned to the film industry with the 1991 movie ''

Breathing Fire ''Breathing Fire'' is a 1991 American martial arts film directed by Lou Kennedy in his directorial debut, and co-directed by Brandon De-Wilde. The film stars Ke Huy Quan, with a supporting cast of Eddie Saavedra, Ed Neil and Jerry Trimble. The ...

,'' serving as executive producer under the pseudonym Delon Tanner. The plot was based on a story he wrote similar to that of his 1977 film '' The Flash Legs''. In 2006, Tan was arrested in Hong Kong for beating up five staff members at a restaurant, acting drunk and belligerent in disputing the bill.

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tan, Tao-liang 1947 births Cantonese people Hong Kong male film actors 20th-century Hong Kong male actors Hong Kong film producers Hong Kong kung fu practitioners Hong Kong hapkido practitioners Hong Kong screenwriters Living people People from Busan South Korean people of Chinese descent