Gene LeBelllegendary judo champion, wrestler and stuntmandied at the age of 89 in his sleep at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, as told to “The Hollywood Reporter” his trustee and business manager Kellie Cunningham.
Gene LeBell’s career
Known affectionately as the “Godfather of Grappling” (a fighting style that takes place standing and on the ground aimed at submitting the opponent without the use of percussion). Gene LeBell taught his masterful fighting techniques to the actors Bruce Lee e Chuck Norrisprofessional wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Mma wrestler Ronda Rousey and many others.
When Quentin Tarantino he turned “Once upon a time … in Hollywood” used LeBell as inspiration for Cliff Booth’s stunt double character (Academy Award winner Brad Pitt) and adapted the LeBell / Lee confrontation into a much-discussed fight scene between Booth and Lee (Mike Moh in the film).
By his own admission,“every Hollywood star beat me when I was a stuntman and actor”. John Wayne punched him in the face in “! Marijuana. The infernal drug” (1952), Elvis Presley gave him a karate kick between the eyes in “Blue Hawaii” (1961), Gene Hackman clashed with him in “Two-legged Cops” (1990) and Burt Reynolds gave him a kick where it hurts the most in “Hard Time” (1998). Steve Martin also mistreated him and threw him into the pool in “The beggar” (1979).“The more you get hit on the nose, the richer you are”amava dire LeBell.
As a stuntman he went through five decades on the small screen. He appeared in all the popular TV shows such as “Mission impossible”, “Ironside”, “The great valley” e “Batman” in the 60s; “The Six Million Dollar Man”, “On the Streets of California”, “Starsky & Hutch” e “The house on the prairie” in the 70s; “Occupation peril”, “Never say yes” and “Magnum PI” in the 80s.
On big screen did the stunt for the 1974 disaster films “Earthquake” e “The crystal hell” and for dozens of films, such as “King Kong” (1976), “The craziest plane in the world” (1980), “My name is Remo Williams” (1985), “RoboCop” (1987), “A blunt bullet” (1988), “No holds barred” (1989).
The meeting with Bruce Lee
In the TV series “The Green Hornet” (1966-67) Gene LeBell met Bruce Lee for the first time. During filming, Lee was reported to be beating up the stuntmen, which prompted the stunt coordinator Bennie Dobbins to call LeBell to help him put the actor in line “putting it under the pressure or something like that”.
In his 2005 autobiography, “The Godfather of Grappling”LeBell recalled grabbing Lee, that“He started making all those noises he became famous for … but he didn’t try to fight me, so I think he was more surprised than anything else.” Then he hoisted Lee onto his shoulders and ran around the set as Lee yelled: “Put me down or I’ll kill you.”
For LeBell, the altercation revealed that the repertoire Lee was devoid of submission maneuvers. “He came to my school and trained for over a year, privately,” LeBell said, “and I went to train with him at his school. I taught him judo, wrestling and final holds which he then he used in some movies. And he showed me many of his kicks and hits. “
I’m 90% certain Gene LeBell was the stuntman here in this iconic scene from Bruce Lee’s “Fist of Fury”, 1972. pic.twitter.com/7w6ANWERyz
— Catch Wrestling U (@CatchWrestling) August 10, 2022
