Actor Simon Yam suffered a shocking public attack on Saturday when he was stabbed in front of a huge crowd. Yam, known for his role in Lara Croft Tomb Raider, was helping to open a new store in China, according to TMZ, when he was acosted with a knife. The whole thing was caught on video.
Yam was in the southern province of China, doing publicity for a new store. As the video shows, he was standing on red carpeted steps in front of a large crowd, speaking with two other people beneath a large festival tent. The crowd was seated in folding chairs, yet there was a lot of movement, so no one really batted an eye as a stranger walked right up to Yam.
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The attacker got right up to Yam with a swaggering gate before reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a knife. He got one strong, audible stab in before the actor jumped away frantically.
As the video shows, the attacker followed up with a few wide slashes and other stabs. It was several moments before other people intervened, and finally security guards rushed the stage to break it up.
The assailant was reportedly taken into custody, but the motive for his attack remains unclear. In the mean time, Yam was taken to the hospital for treatment. Insiders say he is recovering fro a stab wound in his abdomen and a few slash wonds on his arm. Yam is 64 years old.
For American audiences, Yam will be recognizable from a number of Hollywood roles. In 2003 he played Chen Lo in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, where he had a massive fight scene with Angelina Jolie as the title character herself. He also appeared in Election, Exiled and other state-side movies.
Based in Hong Kong, Yam is an even bigger star in and around Asia, both as an actor and a producer. He is still working to this day, with two projects in post-production and four credits already attributed to him in 2019. One of those is the TV series The Thunder, in which Yam played Zhao Jialiang in 48 episodes.
According to Yam’s IMDb biography, he began his career as a supermodel in Hong Kong. He slowly transition to acting starting in the 1970s, with an exclusive contract at the TVB network that put him in several long-running ensemble shows over the years. Later on, Yam got behind the camera as well, trying his hand at producing and directing.
So far there is no word on the severity of Yam’s wounds or his current condition.
