Karate Actors...

[Karate_Warrior]

Hello.
Is it anyone who knows about some actors that practise Karate?

 

[SFC JeffJ]

James Caan used to do some style of karate. Can't remember which one though.

Jeff

 

[zDom]

Hello.
Is it anyone who knows about some actors that practise Karate?

Does Elvis count?

 

[twendkata71]

James Caan practices Gosoku ryu karate under Hanshi Kubota Takayuki.
The guy from the price is right has a black belt in Tang soo do from Chuck Norris.
Sonny Chiba practices an off shoot of Kyokushinkai. He was a direct student of Oyama Hanshi.
Actor Martin Kove (from the karate kid series of movies, Cobra Kai) practices Okinawa te.
Juan Claude Van Dame actually studied Shotokan karate for several years before cross training in other styles. He still practices martial arts regularly.
Sean Cannan(karate kid III, bad kid oposite Daniel San) Practices Shito ryu karate.

 

[twendkata71]

One more side note. Chuck Norris as most of you know is really a martial artist. He is an actor by profession.
He is the founder of Chun kuk do. A combination of Tang soo do, Shito ryu karate, Gracie Jujitsu, and Judo. All of which he has black belts in. He also trained for a short time with Bruce Lee.

 

[Karate_Warrior]

thank you so much for all the info twendkata71.:asian:

 

[twendkata71]

Oh yes, one more. Arnold Swatzenegger studied Ryobukai karate and iaido with Kiyoshi Yamazaki. I know there are more,but I will have to do some more digging.

 

[TimoS]

Dolph Lundgren is, I believe, a 3. dan (or was it even higher) in Kyokushin

 

[zDom]

I can't recall the names just now, but the guy who did the Perfect Weapon movie (Jeff something?) was Kenpo or Kempo, and the guy who did the Renegade series, Lorenzo Lamas?, is also a karate stylist, I believe.

 

[twendkata71]

Jeff Speakman is a 6th dan in American kenpo and a 4th dan in Goju ryu karate the last I heard. Also Doph Lundgrin is still practicing Kyokushinkai. And Lorenzo Lamas studies Taekwondo. I believe with Chong Lee in Los Angeles. Charles Bronson studied karate with Kobuta for a while. Pat Morita(Miyagi on karate kid) actively studied karate after doing the karate kid series. He trained with Pat Johnson(Tang soo do) and Fumio Demura( Genbukai Shito ryu). Fumio Demura did the fight scenes in karate kid and many other movies. He is an 8th dan. Kevin Sorbo from the Andromida series as well as Hurcules studied martial arts for a while,but I am not sure with who.James Colburn (flint,and countless other movies) also studied with Bruce Lee and continued to study martial arts for many years.
Karem Abdul Jabar(former basket ball player and sometimes actor studied Jeet Kune do with Bruce Lee. Bob Wall(played the bad guy in several Bruce Lee movies) studied Tangsoo do with Chuck Norris.
Tadashi Yamashita played the Ninja in "The Octagon" is a 9th dan in Shorin ryu Shorin kan. Jet Li has studied Martial arts in China since the age of 7 and was Chinese National Champion for several years before becoming an Actor. James Lew who has been in many many martial arts movies and TV shows Studies Choy Li Fut Gung fu.
The majority of actors on the Mortal combat series of movies where tournament champions before acting. I am not sure of all of their names. I will have to do some more digging.

 

[Ronin Moose]

Here are a few links that relate to this topic.........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_arts_film


http://www.fightingmaster.com/actors/index.htm


http://www.martial-arts-network.com/qa_robert_conrad.html

-Garry

 

[twendkata71]

Correction. Lorenzo LLamas studied Taekwondo with Jun Chong Taekwondo in LA. Wesley SNipes is a 5th dan in some style of karate/or Taekwondo I am not sure which. I saw him recieve his promotion at an awards ceremony for Black Martial artist in New York. Actor Gregory Hines studied Shotokan karate with Thomas Lapuppet in the Bronx for many years before he passed away.

 

[zDom]

Correction. Lorenzo LLamas studied Taekwondo with Jun Chong Taekwondo in LA. Wesley SNipes is a 5th dan in some style of karate/or Taekwondo I am not sure which. I saw him recieve his promotion at an awards ceremony for Black Martial artist in New York. Actor Gregory Hines studied Shotokan karate with Thomas Lapuppet in the Bronx for many years before he passed away.

Wesley has a very Korean-looking sidekick. Good-looking kicks, overall.

I googled him and the top page I read said he

"trained martial artist in a number of different disciplines including Karate, Kung Fu and Capoeira."

Looks like a Korean sidekick to me, though.

 

[twendkata71]

Steven Segal is an actual Aikido master. As most of you know.
He did study in Japan and ran his own dojo in Japan for several years. David Carradine is an avid kung fu practitioner and has been for over 30 years. Sho Kosugi of "enter the ninja" and "revenge of the ninja" studies Shito ryu karate as well as ninjutsu when he was a young man in Japan. Billy Blanks who was only in a few movies and is known now of TaeBo is a master of Taekwondo as well as black belts in several styles of Japanese karate. He was several times world champion including wining a silver medal in the 1980 WUKO world karate championships. Eric Roberts has trained in several martial arts over the years.

 

[bag]

Has anybody ever met Tom Laughlin, the actor who portrayed the native american film character in the string of "Billy Jack" movies, is he still active with Hapkido lessons from Master Bong Soo Han ?
Jeffrey Meek, actor who starred in the 1990's "Raven" tv series with Lee Majors as side kick, does anybody know if Jeffrey really studied Ninjitsu as did his role in "Raven" ?

 

[twendkata71]

I thought that Tom Laughlin passed away. I do know he did study with Master Han for years.

Has anybody ever met Tom Laughlin, the actor who portrayed the native american film character in the string of "Billy Jack" movies, is he still active with Hapkido lessons from Master Bong Soo Han ?
Jeffrey Meek, actor who starred in the 1990's "Raven" tv series with Lee Majors as side kick, does anybody know if Jeffrey really studied Ninjitsu as did his role in "Raven" ?

 

[Touch Of Death]

Does Elvis count?

He held a black belt in Karate before switching to EPAK.
Sean

 

[Hand Sword]

William Shatner was an EPAK student, I read somewhere.

 

[twendkata71]

Elivis Presley had a shodan in Chito ryu karate, before he started training in Kenpo karate with SGM Ed Parker. Parker promoted Elvis to 7th degree after years of training. Elvis also trained with Kang Rhee in Taekwondo and recieved an 7th and 8th degree from him.
Even though his celebritiy had something to do with the high dan rank. I have heard that he was actually a talented martial artist and trained hard.

He held a black belt in Karate before switching to EPAK.
Sean

 

[ArmorOfGod]

Here is an interesting article about Elvis Presley:

http://www.tracyskarate.com/Stories/was_elvis_really_a_black_belt.htm