If you grew up watching action movies from the 80’s and 90s you should be very familiar with the name of James Lew. He is a legendary martial artist, stunt performer, fight choreographer, and actor whose career has spanned more than five decades and helped shape modern action cinema.
Lew began training in martial arts as a teenager, earning a black belt in Kung Fu and competing and winning in multiple disciplines including Taekwondo and submission grappling.
In the 1970s he answered a casting call for the television series Kung Fu, marking his entry into Hollywood. Over time, he transitioned from background roles into stunt performance, fight choreography, and on-screen appearances. His expertise and charisma soon made him a regular presence in action films and television.
In the 1980s director John Carpenter selected him as the martial arts choreographer for the cult classic Big Trouble in Little China (1986). His contributions helped fuse authentic martial arts style with Hollywood spectacle, setting the stage for decades of action filmmaking that followed.
Over the years, Lew has built an incredible filmography both in front of and behind the camera. He appeared in and/or coordinated stunts for so many action movies and shows such as Action Jackson, Robo Warriors, Escape from L.A., Timecop, Mission of Justice, Rapid Fire, The Perfect Weapon, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Deadly Target, Private Wars, The Shadow, Red Sun Rising, Excessive Force 2: Force on Force, Midnight Man, American Ninja 5, the Rush Hour franchise, and Christopher Nolan’s Inception to name just a few. His work ranged from on-screen villainous roles to designing intricate fights and training actors, including martial arts training for Brad Pitt on Troy. James also starred as Sifu Li Qiang in the underrated TV show Warrior; I still want one more season to wrap things up…
If you follow Simon Rhee on Instagram he has provided some great behind the scenes stories especially about Lethal Weapon 4. He mentions that “in LW4, Jet Li was kicking my friend James Lew really hard, so James asked our stunt coordinator if it’s ok for him to kick him back and was told not to. Jet Li ended up really choking James out on this scene. In my opinion, that wasn’t cool on Jet Li!” So, James was as always the professional but yes that wasn’t cool of Jet Li.
James also led his own stunt team, the “Hong Kong Wire Action Team,” bringing elite action design to a wide range of media.
In 2017 James Lew won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for his work on the Netflix series Luke Cage, a testament to his enduring impact and expertise in crafting compelling, character-driven action sequences.
Lew has also ventured into writing and filmmaking. In 2006, he wrote, directed, and starred in the action comedy 18 Fingers of Death!, a project inspired by his own experiences in the martial arts and film worlds.
With a career encompassing well over 100 on-screen roles and countless stunt and coordination credits, James Lew remains one of the most recognizable and respected figures in action entertainment. His legacy bridges classic martial arts cinema and modern Hollywood blockbusters, influencing generations of performers and filmmakers alike.