Tao-liang Tan

Tan Tao-liang (Chinese: 譚道良 ; Tan Dao-liang; born 22 December 1947) is a Chinese-Korean martial artist and former film actor. He used numerous pseudonyms throughout his career, most frequently 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 dedicated his time to teaching martial arts, notably to Yuen Biao, Ke Huy Quan of The Goonies, and Shannon Lee, daughter of the late Bruce Lee.

Tan was born on December 22, 1947, in Pusan, South Korea. He is a Chinese Korean[clarification needed ], aka hwagyo, whose parents fled mainland China after the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. At age 7, Tan began studying martial arts including taekwondo, judo, hapkido and kung fu. 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. He went on to teach martial arts to actor John Liu.

In 1973, Tan's fighting style was noticed by filmmakers and he was asked to appear in the film The Hero of Chiu Chow. After the film's release, he continued to star in kungfu films while spending most of his time teaching martial arts. 1976 was when Tan reached breakthrough success by starring in John Woo's Hand of Death, which also featured early performances by Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao.

After completing Last Breath in 1984, Tan retired from acting and moved to Monterey Park, California, 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, 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 Kong Kong for beating up five staff members at a restaurant, acting drunk and belligerent in disputing the bill.