Judo champion, wrestler and stuntman. The world of cinema and martial arts is crying Gene LeBelldied in his sleep, aged 89, in his home in Sherman Oaksin California. The man, known by the affectionate nickname of “The Godfather of Grappling”(a standing and ground fighting style aimed at subduing the opponent without the use of percussion) was twice national judo champion and, later, worked with Bruce Lee e Chuck Norris, teaching them different fighting techniques. “Every Hollywood star hit me when I was a stuntman and an actor. The more you get hit on the nose, the richer you are”, LeBell liked to tell, ironically. And the list of hits is quite long: a punch in the face by John Waynea karate kick between the eyes from Elvis Presleya physical confrontation with Gene Hackmana kick in the private parts from Burt Reynolds and so on.
Between small and big screen, the stuntman has gone through five different decades: he has not only appeared in the most popular series such as ‘Mission Impossible’, ‘Ironside’, ‘The great valley’ e ‘Batman’but also in catastrophic films such as ‘King Kong’ (1976), ‘RoboCop’(1987) e ‘A blunt bullet’ (1988). On the set of ‘The Green Hornet’ he met Bruce Lee for the first time, becoming friends despite a complicated approach. In his autobiography, ‘The Godfather of Grappling’released in 2005, said he trained privately with the actor for a year and teaching him judo, wrestling and final tricks, later used in some movies. He also inspired Quentin Tarantino for the stunt double of Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) in ‘Once upon a time … in Hollywood’ (2019)
Not just cinema and fiction. LeBell, pioneer of combat sports, is the son of Aileen Eatonthe first woman to be included in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. In addition, he took part in what, according to some, was the first televised mixed martial arts bout, on December 2, 1963 in Salt Lake City. The opponent? The heavyweight boxer Milo Savage, immobilized by LeBell with a rear PTO after four rounds.
