- Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee (November 27, 1940 - July 20, 1973) was a martial artist, philosopher, instructor, and martial arts actor widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the 20th century. Born in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong, Lee is best remembered for the presentation of Chinese martial arts to the non-Chinese world.
- Jackie Chan
Chan Kong-Sang, also known as Sing Lung or Jackie Chan SBS, (born on April 7, 1954) is a Chinese actor, director, martial artist, film producer, screenwriter, singer and stunt performer. Chan is one of the best known names in kung fu and action movies worldwide for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, usage of improvised weapons and his innovative stunts.
- Jet Li
Jet Li (born Li Lianjie on April 26th, 1963 in Beijing, China) is a Chinese martial artist, actor, Wushu champion, and international film star.
- Chuck Norris
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris (born 10 March 1940) is an American martial artist, action star, and Hollywood actor who is known for playing Cordell Walker on "Walker, Texas Ranger". In 2006, he became the subject of an internet phenomenon known as Chuck Norris Facts.
- Jean-Claude van Damme
Jean-Claude Van Damme (born October 18, 1960) is a Belgian-born martial artist and actor who is best known for his large catalogue of action movies. His Belgian background combined with his physique gave rise to his nickname "The Muscles from Brussels". Van Damme has also been called the "King of the Belgians" due to his international superstardom.
- Morihei Ueshiba
Morihei Ueshiba was a famous martial artist and founder of the Japanese martial art of aikido. He is often referred to as, meaning "founder", or "Ōsensei", meaning "Great Teacher", by some "aikidōka".
- Chow Yun-Fat
Chow Yun-Fat (born May 18, 1955) is a Hong Kong actor. He is among a handful of internationally recognized screen actors that the Hong Kong film industry has produced, along with martial artist Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, and Maggie Cheung. However, unlike many of his male counterparts, Chow is not a martial artist. A tall (6'1 / 1.85 m) and charismatic actor, he won Hong Kong's "best actor" award three times and Taiwan's twice.
- Donnie Yen
Donnie Yen Chi Dan (born July 27, 1963), is a martial artist and a Hong Kong film actor, director and producer.
- Michelle Yeoh
Dato' Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng (Cantonese (Yale romanization): yèuhng jí kìhng; born August 6, 1962) is a Hong Kong-based actress and dancer, sometimes billed as "Michelle Khan". Yeoh is a Chinese Malaysian born in Ipoh, Malaysia. Yeoh was chosen by People magazine as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" in 1997.
- Ed Parker
Edmund Kealoha Parker was an American martial artist and teacher. He is perhaps most famous as the founder of American Kenpo. Parker was born in Hawaii and raised a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He began his training in the martial arts at a young age in judo and later boxing. Some time in the 1940s, Ed Parker was first introduced to Kenpo by Frank Chow. After some time Frank Chow introduced Ed Parker to William K. S. Chow. Mr.
- Wesley Snipes
Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962) is an American actor, martial artist and film producer. He may be best known for his role as the vampire hunter in the "Blade" trilogy of movies. Snipes has starred in action-adventures, thrillers, comedies, and dramatic feature films opposite such actors as Robert De Niro and Sean Connery. On April 24, 2008, he was sentenced to three years in prison for three misdemeanor convictions for willful failure to file federal income tax returns.
- Wong Fei Hung
Wong Fei Hung (July 9, 1847-March 25, 1924) was a martial artist, healer, and revolutionary who became a Chinese folk hero and the subject of numerous television series and films. As a healer and medical doctor, Wong practiced and taught acupuncture and other forms of traditional Chinese medicine at 'Po Chi Lam' (寶芝林), his clinic in Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, where he was known for his compassion and policy of treating any patient.
- Joe Lewis
Joe Lewis is an American kickboxer and point Karate fighter whose success in the ring in the 1960s and 1970s is still legendary. He has twice been voted the greatest fighter in karate history, and has attained the titles of "World Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion," "World Heavyweight Karate Champion," and "United States National Black Belt Kata Champion." Joe Lewis studied Shorin-ryu Karate with Eizo Shimabuku, …
- Bill Wallace
Bill Wallace (December 1, 1945) is an American martial artist, best known as Bill "Superfoot" Wallace or simply "Superfoot", the dominant kickboxer of the 1970s. He was born in Portland, Indiana, and began his study of Judo and Shorin-ryu Karate in February 1967 while serving in the U.S. Air Force. After entering the point fighting tournament scene and achieving success there, he switched to full-contact kickboxing.
- Rickson Gracie
Rickson Gracie, born November 20, 1958) is a martial artist and a mixed martial arts fighter who holds a 7th degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He is a member of the Gracie family: the son of Hélio Gracie, brother to Rorion Gracie, and half-brother to Royce Gracie and Royler Gracie. He was the winner of the Vale Tudo Japan tournament in 1994 and 1995.
- Jim Kelly
Jim Kelly (born May 5 1946 in Paris, Kentucky) is an American athlete, actor and martial artist who came to prominence in the early 1970s. Kelly began his athletic career in high school, competing successfully in basketball, football, and track and field. He attended the University of Louisville and left during his freshman year to begin studying Shorin-ryu karate. After winning the 1971 International Middleweight Karate Championship, he opened his own martial arts school.
- Paul Vunak
Paul Vunak is a California-based martial artist and known as the founder of Progressive Fighting Systems (PFS). By fourteen, he had achieved his first black belt. Paul began to explore other styles such as Kenpo and Hung Gar (Tiger Crane) Gung Fu. Within three years, he had earned another black belt (in Kenpo). In August of 1976, the school where Paul studied Kenpo closed and he enrolled in Dan Inosanto's Filipino Kali Academy, …
- Billy Blanks
Billy Blanks (b. September 1, 1955) is a fitness guru, martial artist, actor, and the inventor of Tae Bo. Blanks was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, the fourth of fifteen children. As a child he suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia. Blanks began his study of the martial arts at the age of fourteen. He quickly excelled, winning several local, state, and national championships. He emerged as a seven-time world Karate champion, and holds a seventh-degree black belt in tae kwon do.
- Dave Lowry
Dave Lowry has been a student of Japanese martial arts since 1968, when he began studying Yagyū Shinkage-ryū kenjutsu under Ryokichi Kotaro of the Nara Prefecture of Japan. He has also studied Shintō Musō-ryū, a style that focuses on use of a four-foot long staff, as well as more modern arts such as karate, aikido, and Kodokan judo. Lowry is most well known as a writer who has written about a variety of topics related to budo, …
- Bruce Li
Bruce Li is one of the stage names of Ho Chung Tao, a Taiwanese martial artist and Bruce Lee imitator who starred in martial arts movies from the Bruceploitation movement.
- Michael Jai White
Michael Jai White (born November 10, 1967) is an American actor and professional martial artist who has appeared in numerous films and television series.
- Wu Jing
Wu Jing (sometimes credited as Jason Wu or Jacky Wu, b. April 3, 1974 in Beijing) is a Chinese and Hong Kong martial artist and actor. At age six he was sent to the Beijing Sports Institute at Shichahai. Both his father and grandfather were also martial artists. Like Jet Li before him, he competed as a member of the Beijing Wushu Team.
- Joe Eigo
Joe Eigo (born February 19, 1980) is a Canadian gymnast, martial artist, and stunt performer.
- Hwang Jang Lee
Hwang Jang Lee (born December 13, 1944) is a Korean martial artist and film actor. His name is often written as Wong Cheng Lee or Wong Cheng Li, in their Cantonese-Chinese equivalents. He is also nicknamed Silver fox (the name of his most popular movie character), as well as "Thunderleg" or "Thunderfoot" (from his role in Drunken Master) Born in Osaka, Japan, …
- Richard Norton
Richard Norton (born January 6, 1950, in Australia) is a martial artist, action film star, and stuntman. Norton worked as a bodyguard in the entertainment business before pursuing an acting career. His first screen appearance was in the 1980 Chuck Norris film "The Octagon", and to date he has worked on over 70 feature films and television programs.
- Frank Dux
Frank Dux is the founder of an amalgamated martial art form with the acronym FASST, also called Dux Ryu Ninjutsu. Frank Dux is also the author of the book, "The Secret Man" (1996) published by ReganBooks. In the book, Dux claims that Director of Central Intelligence William Casey approached him to become a contract paramilitary agent for the Central Intelligence Agency. He claims to have operated in Iran, Nicaragua, Grenada, and even in the Soviet Union, …
- Bey Logan
Bey Logan (born November 15, 1963) is a respected expert on Asian cinema, particularly Hong Kong action cinema. He is also notable as a screenwriter and as a martial artist (trained in Hung Gar) who has had (usually minor) roles in a number of films, including "The Twins Effect". He is the author of "Hong Kong Action Cinema", an introduction to the subject, was a founder and editor of Impact magazine, …
- Jeff Speakman
Jeff Speakman is an American actor and an accomplished martial artist in the art of kenpo.
- Wong Shun Leung
Wong Shun Leung was a Chinese Wing Chun stylist.
- Kenshiro Abbe
(December 15th, 1915 - December 1st, 1985) was a famous Japanese martial artist. He was born in the Tokushima Province of Japan, the fourth son of Mrs. Koto Abbe and father Toshizo. He has been credited with contributing to the introduction of martial arts to the UK and Europe. Starting his life training with his father, he attended the famous Budo Senmon Gakko and is credited as being the founder of the Kyushindo system.
- Fumio Demura
Fumio Demura (born in Yokohama, Japan in 1938) is a martial artist and martial arts teacher.
- Dragon Lee
Dragon Lee (born 1940 North Korea), is an actor and practitioner of Tae Kwon Do and hapkido. Soon after his birth his family relocated to the former U.S.S.R where was then given the name "Vyachaslev Yaksysnyi". His family remained there until Lee was a teenager and then relocated to South Korea. It was at this stage of his life that Lee began studying the Korean martial art of hapkido under the direction of Hwang In-Shik.
- Tim Cartmell
Tim Cartmell is a martial artist, creator of the syncretic style Shen Wu, and author and translator of a number of texts on martial arts. Tim started studying Kung Fu San Soo at the age of eleven and studied the art for twelve years. He started Kung-Fu San Soo with Frank Woolsey Kung-Fu Studios Inc. in Huntington Beach, CA. and later continued training with Ted Sias and Jimmy H. Woo. Tim then moved to Taiwan in 1984 to study internal martial arts, …
- Chen Zhen
Chen Zhen is a fictitious Chinese martial artist, often portrayed as a student of Huo Yuanjia. His story is based on the life of Huo Yuanjia's first student, Liu Zhen-Sheng (劉振聲). It is said that Chen Zhen fought in many fights and tried to salvage the Chin Woo Athletic Association's lost name after the death of his master. He later defeated a famous Japanese general who was behind his master's poisoning in a fight and escaped to Hong Kong under disguise.
- Kwan Tak Hing
Kwan Tak Hing (born 27 June 1905 in Guandong, China, died 28 June 1996 in Hong Kong) was an actor who played the role of martial artist Wong Fei Hong in at least 77 films, between the 1940s and the 1980s. No-one else in cinema history has portrayed the same person so many times. In total he made over 130 films. He was elected to be the chairman of Chinese Artist Association of Hong Kong in 1955. He was awarded the M.B.E. (Member of the British Empire) in 1983.
- Jeff Goldblum
Education: Jeff went to High School at a small school called West Mifflin North High School in PA. After High School he studied acting at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse and the Carnegie Mellon University summer drama program. ... Roots in acting: Jeff's first notable stage role was as a guard in Joe Papp's New York production of Two Gentlemen of Verona.
- Mario Sperry
Mario "The Zen Machine" Sperry is a heavyweight martial artist from Brazil. His specialty is Brazilian jiu-jitsu, grappling and ground fighting.
- Wong Kiew Kit
Wong Kiew Kit Wong Kiew Kit claims to be the fourth generation successor from the Shaolin Monastery of China, and a grandmaster of Shaolin Kung Fu and Chi Kung.
- Gary Daniels
Gary Edward Daniels (b. May 9, 1963) is a British born kickboxer, martial artist, and martial arts actor. Daniels appears mostly in action-oriented B-movies. Daniels has been in over 50 films since his start as an extra in an episode of the 1980's television series "Miami Vice".
- Freddie Prinze Jr.
Frederick Karl Pruetzel, better known as “Freddie Prinze” was an American actor and stand-up comedian. In his short career he was best known as the star of "Chico and the Man". He was the father of actor Freddie Prinze, Jr.