American actor and stunt performer
Kim Kahana, Sr.
|
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Born
| Kim Kahana
(
1929-10-16
)
October 16, 1929
(age 94)
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Nationality
| American
|
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Occupation(s)
| Stunt performer
Actor
Martial arts instructor
|
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Years active
| 1953?present
|
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Spouse
|
Sandy Kahana
(
m.
2005)
|
---|
Children
| 4
|
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Website
| http://kahanastuntschool.com
|
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Kim Kahana Sr.
(born 1929) is an American actor,
stunt performer
[1]
and
action choreographer
of
Hawaiian
and
Japanese
descent. He has done stunts for over 300 movies and television programs and runs a stunt school in Groveland, Florida that has trained over 15,000 students.
[2]
Early life and military service
[
edit
]
Unable to read or write, Kahana dropped out of school in third grade. At age 13 he hitchhiked across the United States by himself, sometimes stealing in order to eat.
[3]
His performing career began as a knife and fire dancer in a stage show called
Samoan Warriors
.
[1]
Kahana served as a
paratrooper
in the
Korean War
where he was captured and shot by an enemy
firing squad
. Feigning death, he was left by his captors in a
mass grave
from which he escaped. A
hand grenade
explosion also rendered him sightless for two years and permanently blind in his left eye.
[3]
The U.S. military awarded Kahana a
Silver Star
and two
Bronze Star Medals
, as well as two
Purple Hearts
for his services.
[1]
In 1955, Kahana survived a plane crash in the state of
Texas
that killed the other 32 people on board. Surviving this crash and his experiences in Korea imbued Kahana with a personal life philosophy of, "Maybe I'm right where I ought to be."
[3]
Film, television and stunt career
[
edit
]
Kahana entered film after the Korean War, working as an
extra
, playing a motorcycle rider in 1953's
The Wild One
.
[1]
When he saw that stunt performers were paid more than extras, he pursued a stunt career, training with Yakima Canutt and John Eppers.
[4]
By the 1960s and throughout the 70s and 80s, he worked steadily as a stuntman for many films including
Cool Hand Luke
(1967),
Planet of the Apes
1968,
Che!
(1969),
Patton
(1970),
The Omega Man
(1971),
Joe Kidd
(1972),
Soylent Green
(1973),
Burt Reynolds
'
Smokey and the Bandit
franchise, and the disaster films of
Irwin Allen
. Kahana also doubled for
Charles Bronson
in his films for over 20 years.
[1]
Kahana also performed and coordinated fight scenes and stunts (often uncredited) for numerous TV shows, including 28 episodes of
Kung Fu
, and made numerous appearances on other programs, including
Mission Impossible
;
The Six Million Dollar Man
;
Vega$
;
Magnum, P.I.
;
Charlie's Angels
;
Quincy, M.E.
;
Fantasy Island
and
The Brady Bunch
. Because of his size (5' 7", or 168 cm) Kahana frequently acted as stunt double for female actors, including
Stefanie Powers
of
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
and
Sally Field
on
The Flying Nun
.
[1]
In 1968, Kahana played a leading role in the
Hanna-Barbera
children's adventure
serial
Danger Island
, a live-action serialized adventure story that appeared as part of the
Banana Splits Adventure Hour
. His character,
Chongo
, was a
mute
castaway
from a
shipwrecked
merchant marine
vessel who communicated only using
hand signs
and
bird calls
. As the comedic
sidekick
to fellow castaway Elihu Morgan (played by
Rockne Tarkington
), Chongo's antics prompted his friend to call out, "Uh-oh Chongo!". The
catchphrase
became popular with children during the following decade, and inevitably followed Kahana in his work and personal life.
[4]
Because
Danger Island
aired weekly and Kahana worked both as an actor and as a stunt performer, he was one of the highest paid stunt people in the business.
[1]
Over his first three decades of work as a stunt performer, Kahana broke his bones more than 60 times. By the 1980s, Kahana had moved away from doing "life-threatening" stunts while still continuing to coordinate action scenes and perform his own stunt work.
[3]
Kahana has served as a member of the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures and spent eight years on the
Screen Actors Guild
's Safety Investigative Team and the Stunt Safety Committee. He runs a production company called Stunt Action & Safety Coordinator, Inc. that runs
second unit
production for major motion pictures.
[5]
He opened the Kahana Stunt School in 1972 to train performers in stunt work and safety, as well as how to navigate the motion picture and TV industries.
[2]
[6]
Other work
[
edit
]
Kahana studied
martial arts
in
Japan
where he earned six
black belts
in
karate
,
aikido
and
jujutsu
. In addition to teaching stunts, he is a martial arts and
hand-to-hand combat
instructor and weapons expert.
[5]
Kahana has also run a
bodyguard
agency, employing as many as 30 people at once.
[3]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Kim Kahana had three sons (Tony, Rick, and Kim Jr.) and one daughter (Debbie), all of whom teach at Kahana's school, hold black belts in karate and have also performed in numerous blockbuster films. In 2005 Kahana Sr. married his wife Sandra, who works as the lead administrator for the stunt school.
[7]
On July 24, 2012, Kim Kahana lost his son Rick Kalua Kahana, who died at his home in
Canoga Park
, California.
[8]
Selected filmography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]