Chinese Actor Du Yiheng, Who Was Andy Lau’s Body Double For 10 Years, Just Won An International Acting Award

Chinese actor Du Yiheng, 42, looks a lot like Andy Lau. So much, in fact, that he spent a decade as the 59-year-old Heavenly King's body double.

Yiheng first started out as singer in the '90s to very little success and he eventually became a backup dancer for Jacky Cheung’s concerts.

In 2000, he won talent show Super Star Impersonators — no prizes for who he mimicked — and was soon contacted by Andy’s team.

They offered him a job as Andy’s body double and Yiheng would take Andy's place whenever the star had to shoot dangerous stunts. According to Chinese media, Yiheng was in “almost every single one” of Andy’s movies from 2000 to 2010.

Life as a body double was not easy for Yiheng, who had to risk his life on multiple occasions. One movie required him to ride a horse, but the steed got spooked by something suddenly and threw Yiheng on the ground. Yiheng was inches away from getting trampled to death, but thankfully escaped with no lasting injuries.

While acting on the big screen was a dream for Yiheng, he quickly realised that he wasn't content being a nameless body double for the rest of his career.

Although he tried to get cast in small projects, many directors were hesitant to offer him roles as they felt that audiences would just see him as a lesser version of Andy.

That was until Chinese director Jiang Wen noticed him and offered him a role in 2010 movie Let The Bullets Fly. More casting offers quickly followed and his acting career finally started to take off.

This week, Yiheng's efforts have finally been acknowledged by the acting community. For his role in Chinese movie I Hope You Are Well, he won the Outstanding Actor Honorary award at the Asian Film Awards as well as the People’s Choice award at the Vancouver Chinese Film Festival.

Yiheng, who plays a single dad who struggles with raising his young daughter in I Hope You Are Well, has been congratulated by many netizens. They have also brought attention to this old Weibo post, in which he mused about his career.

“There are no shortcuts in life. You have to focus your time and energy on the things that you should do. Leave your complaints behind and keep your head on your shoulders. You can only improve yourself through hard work, he wrote.

Photos: PBE Media