The “zero-to-hero” tale turned Liu into an international icon in spite of a frame far slighter than that of the folk hero himself (known as “Iron Arms” for the muscularity of his physique) and paved the way for a very healthy working schedule into the mid-1990s, even as younger, more agile martial artists eventually emerged. By the late 1980s he had begun accepting smaller roles such as in Lau Kar-leung's Tiger on the Beat.

In 2008, Liu added a Bollywood film to his profile. Collaborating with Indian actor Akshay Kumar who is a top-billed Bollywood actor and also a martial arts performer in a film titled Chandni Chowk To China (CC2C). He played the role of the villain, Hojo, a smuggler and a well-trained martial Artist. Before this, he appeared as himself (along with his mentor Lau Kar Leung) in Dragonland, 2009, the very first Italian documentary about Martial Cinema History, a homevideo 3 hours kung-fu marathon written and directed by specialist Lorenzo De Luca. Liu attended as special guest star at the premiere in Rome, meeting his Italian fans for the first time. During August 2011, Liu suffered a stroke and put all his plans on hold to recover; his camp has not released additional information and Liu had cancelled all public engagements as of March 2012. Gordon survived his stroke, but is left partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound. Because of his condition, he never resumed his public engagement plans and now lives a private life at a nursing home.

In August 2011, while in To Kwa Wan performing with his band, Liu suffered a stroke and hit his head. He had partial right-sided paralysis and a speech impairment as a consequence of the stroke; he talks with a slur and needs a wheelchair to travel. To complicate matters, his estranged family (from his second marriage) had begun pressuring him for money. Depressed at his physical state and family complications, he isolated himself in a nursing home. In June 2012, Liu decided to divorce his second wife and focus on his recovery.

Quentin Tarantino has long been a fan of Liu, and had one day hoped to find him a role in one of his movies. This eventually came to pass with the roles of Johnny Mo and Master Pai Mei in both Kill Bill films (incidentally, in one version of the script for the second film, Liu's lips would be speaking Cantonese while his voice, dubbed by Tarantino, would be in English — imitating a bad dub job). His roles in Kill Bill raised Liu's profile again and a renewed interest was shown by Chinese producers; since Kill Bill, Liu has returned to doing movies while continuing to do television for Hong Kong's TVB station.

Liu’s first break was with Chang's Film Company (a Shaw Brothers subsidiary operating in Taiwan) acting small parts for such films as 5 Shaolin Masters, Shaolin Martial Arts, and 4 Assassins. He starred in Challenge of the Masters (1976), as the folk hero Wong Fei Hung, and was featured in Executioners From Shaolin (1977) before starring in his signature role as Shaolin hero San Te in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.