Day before Yesterday evening, with too many boring movies on the idiot box, I settled on the rerun of Enter the Dragon. Watching it after so many years, I could not help recalling that the actor/character we liked most back then was actually Jim Kelly.
No doubt we were in awe of Bruce Lee, and thought John Saxon was the cutest, but the happy-go-lucky Williams character played by Jim Kelly caught our imagination - not to forget the fantastic Afro hairstyle. Too bad the character was killed off half way into the film.
When Black Belt Jones came out next, our enthusiasm knew no bounds. The movie had that great soap bubble fight climax where Jim Kelly roundhouse kicks 4 opponents down. That summer many half pants (or shorts) including school uniforms were torn in out antics to emulate a kicking someone in the face.
:-D
There is another adventure linked to the movie Black Belt Jones, but that will have to wait for my autobiography!!
Thus it was with sadness I read the obituary of Jim Kelly - the martial artist, actor, athlete and karate champion, today. "Yesterday, June 29, 2013, James Milton Kelly, better known as Jim Kelly, the Karate expert, actor, my first husband and Sabrena Kelly-Lewis's biological father died," Marilyn Dishman wrote in a Facebook.
Best known for his part in Enter the Dragon, his acting career was brief, though successful. In 1971, he won four major martial arts championships in a row and became a star in the karate world. Later Kelly took up tennis professionally, becoming a ranked player on the USTA senior circuit.
That’s quite an achievement isn’t it?
Here the fight sequence that we all loved. Looks a little kitsch now, after all these years.
The image is burned in memory…
No doubt we were in awe of Bruce Lee, and thought John Saxon was the cutest, but the happy-go-lucky Williams character played by Jim Kelly caught our imagination - not to forget the fantastic Afro hairstyle. Too bad the character was killed off half way into the film.
When Black Belt Jones came out next, our enthusiasm knew no bounds. The movie had that great soap bubble fight climax where Jim Kelly roundhouse kicks 4 opponents down. That summer many half pants (or shorts) including school uniforms were torn in out antics to emulate a kicking someone in the face.
:-D
There is another adventure linked to the movie Black Belt Jones, but that will have to wait for my autobiography!!
Thus it was with sadness I read the obituary of Jim Kelly - the martial artist, actor, athlete and karate champion, today. "Yesterday, June 29, 2013, James Milton Kelly, better known as Jim Kelly, the Karate expert, actor, my first husband and Sabrena Kelly-Lewis's biological father died," Marilyn Dishman wrote in a Facebook.
Best known for his part in Enter the Dragon, his acting career was brief, though successful. In 1971, he won four major martial arts championships in a row and became a star in the karate world. Later Kelly took up tennis professionally, becoming a ranked player on the USTA senior circuit.
That’s quite an achievement isn’t it?
Here the fight sequence that we all loved. Looks a little kitsch now, after all these years.
The image is burned in memory…
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