Jim Kelly, Actor in ‘Enter the Dragon,’ Dies at 67
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 30, 2013 at 8:26 PM ET
SAN DIEGO — Jim Kelly, who played a glib American martial artist in “Enter the Dragon” with Bruce Lee, died Saturday at his home in San Diego. He was 67.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, via Associated Press
Jim Kelly in 1973 in a scene from "Enter the Dragon."
The cause was cancer, Marilyn Dishman, Mr. Kelly’s ex-wife, said.
Sporting an Afro hairstyle and sideburns, Mr. Kelly made a splash with his one-liners and fight scenes in the 1973 martial arts classic. His later films included “Three the Hard Way,” '‘Black Belt Jones” and “Black Samurai.”
During a 2010 interview with salon.com, Mr. Kelly said he started studying martial arts in 1964 in Kentucky and later moved to California where he earned a black belt in karate. He said he set his sights on becoming an actor after winning karate tournaments. He also played college football.
The role in the Bruce Lee film was his second. He had about a dozen film roles in the 1970s before his acting work tapered off. In recent years, he drew lines of autograph seekers at comic book conventions.
“It was one of the best experiences in my life,” he told salon.com of working on “Enter the Dragon.” '‘Bruce was just incredible, absolutely fantastic. I learned so much from working with him. I probably enjoyed working with Bruce more than anyone else I’d ever worked with in movies because we were both martial artists. And he was a great, great martial artist. It was very good.”
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James Milton "Jim" "the Dragon" Kelly (May 5, 1946 – June 29, 2013) was an American athlete, actor, and martial artist who rose to fame in the early 1970s. He was best known from his performance as Williams in the 1973 film Enter the Dragon.
Kelly was born in Paris, Kentucky. He began his athletic career in high school, competing in basketball, football, and track and field. He attended the University of Louisville where he played football, but left during his freshman year to begin studying Shorin-ryu karate. Additionally, he trained in Okinawan karate under the direction of Masters, Parker Shelton and Gordon Doversola. During the early 1970's, Jim Kelly became one of the most decorated world karate champions in the sport. In 1971, Kelly won four prestigious championships that same year, most notably, the World Middleweight Karate title at the 1971 Long Beach International Karate Championships. He opened his own dojo which was frequented by numerous Hollywood celebrities. He taught karate to actor Calvin Lockhart for a role in a thriller feature film Melinda. Kelly ended up playing a martial arts instructor in the movie.
As an actor, Kelly became the first Black martial arts film star. Jim Kelly co-starred alongside Bruce Lee in the block buster, Enter the Dragon. The role was originally supposed to go to actor Rockne Tarkington, who unexpectedly dropped out days before shooting in Hong Kong. Producer Fred Weintraub had heard about Jim Kelly's karate studio in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, and went there to see him and was immediately impressed. Kelly's role as Williams, an inner-city karate instructor who is harassed by white police officers, made a good impression upon directors and African-American males with his cool-cat demeanor and formidable physical skills.
This appearance led to starring roles in a string of martial arts-themed blaxploitation films, among them Melinda and Black Belt Jones. Most of Kelly's film roles played up the novelty of an African-American martial arts master.
Kelly earned a three-film contract with Warner Brothers and made Three the Hard Way with Jim Brown and Fred Williamson, and Hot Potato, a movie in which he rescues a diplomat's daughter from the jungles of Thailand. After his contract ended with Warner Brothers, he starred in low-budget films Black Samurai, Death Dimension, and Tattoo Connection.
After his appearance in 1982's One Down, Two to Go, Kelly appeared in movies only rarely.
A deleted scene from the film "Undercover Brother", included on the DVD extra features, shows him in a cameo appearance with Eddie Griffin.
Kelly was a professional tennis player on the USTA Senior Men's Circuit. He often played tennis recreationally in the 1970s at Los Angeles' Plummer Park in West Hollwood.
In 2004, Kelly appeared with NBA star LeBron James in the Nike commercial "Chamber of Fear", a similarity of the Bruce Lee film Game of Death.
Kelly resided in Southern California and worked as a professional tennis coach. He was still a popular draw at conventions such as the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International.
He considered Bruce Lee as "the greatest martial artist, who ever lived".
Jim Kelly died of cancer on June 29 2013, at his home in San Diego, California.
The filmography of, and television credits for, Jim Kelly read as follows:
Filmography
- Melinda (1972)
- Enter the Dragon (1973) as Williams
- Black Belt Jones (1974) as Black Belt Jones
- Three the Hard Way (1974) as Mister Keyes
- Golden Needles (1974)
- Take a Hard Ride (1975) as Kashtok
- Hot Potato (1976) as Jones
- Black Samurai (1977) as Robert Sand
- The Tattoo Connection (a.k.a. E yu tou hei sha xing, Black Belt Jones 2) (1978)
- Death Dimension (1978)
- The Amazing Mr. No Legs (1981)
- One Down, Two To Go (1982)
- Stranglehold (1994)
- Macked, Hammered, Slaughtered and Shafted (2004)
- Afro Ninja Destiny (2009)
- Afro Ninja (2009)
Television
- Highway To Heaven (1985/1986) (2 episodes)
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