James Lew (born 6 September 1952; age 72) is the stuntman, actor, fight and stunt coordinator, and filmmaker, who served as fight coordinator for the Star Trek: Voyager sixth season episode "Tsunkatse", under stunt coordination of Dennis Madalone. Lew later portrayed a stunt Romulan in Star Trek. For both Trek assignments he received no credit.
Born as James Jene Fae Lew in Los Angeles, California, Lew studied martial arts under Sifu Doug Wong and received his Black Belt in Kung Fu in 1972. With over 25 years of martial arts experiences, coordination, and training, Lew published the book "The Art of Stretching and Kicking" in 1982, followed by several training videos since 1992. Listed in several top lists of martial arts artists, member of the Martial Arts History Museum, and published in over 40 magazines, Lew has appeared on-screen alongside almost all action stars of the last decades, including Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Jeanne-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, and Sylvester Stallone.
Lew started his stunt and stunt acting career in the late 1970s and performed in movies such as the comedy Big Time (1977), the television drama The Fantastic Seven (1979, with Christopher Lloyd), Going Berserk (1983, with Richard Libertini, Kurtwood Smith, Rosalind Chao, and stunts by Mark Yerkes), Los Angeles Streetfighter (1985), T. J. Hooker (1985, starring William Shatner and James Darren, and with Barbara Luna and Clyde Kusatsu), Big Trouble in Little China (1986, with Kim Cattrall, Jeff Imada, Kenny Endoso, Bill Ryusaki, and Simone Boisseree) for which he also served as associate producer and martial arts choreographer, Action Jackson (1988), They Live (1988, with Meg Foster), and Best of the Best (1989).
In the 1990s, Lew served as stunt coordinator for several projects, including Guns (1990), Aftershock (1990, with Matthias Hues and Michael Berryman), Double Impact (1991, with Alan Scarfe), the science fiction film Dark Vengeance (1992), the action film Ballistic (1995, with Marjean Holden, Charles Napier, and Jeff Rector), the science fiction adventure Robo Warriors (1996), Boogie Boy (1998, with Karen Sheperd and stunts by Bobby Aldridge and Anita Hart), and Late Last Night (1999, with Steven Weber). He also served as martial arts coordinator/ choreographer on a few projects: Baywatch (1992, starring Cary-Hiroyuki), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), Raven (1992-1993), and as sword trainer for Patrick Stewart on Safe House (1999). Additional credits where he combined stunts, martial arts, and acting roles are Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991, with Cary-Hiroyuki), Undercover Blues (1993, with stunts by Dana Hee, Jim Wilkey, and Eddie Braun), Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), Timecop (1994), Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), Escape from L.A. (1996, with Michelle Forbes), Red Corner (1997), High Voltage (1997), and Rush Hour (1998), as well Murder, She Wrote (1990, with Elinor Donahue, Michael Horton, and William Windom), Roseanne (1992), Renegade (1993, with Branscombe Richmond, Cary-Hiroyuki, and Anthony De Longis), Space Rangers (1993-1994, starring Marjorie Monaghan and Cary-Hiroyuki, and with Clint Howard, Susan Fallender, Salli Elise Richardson, and Leon Russom), Walker, Texas Ranger (1994, starring Clarence Gilyard, Jr. and Noble Willingham), Babylon 5 (1998, with regulars Bill Mumy, Tracy Scoggins, Patricia Tallman, and Andreas Katsulas, and Walter Koenig and Clynell Jackson III), and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy (1999).
Further credits include stunt coordination for the action film Instinct to Kill (2001), the short film Four Fingers of the Dragon (2003, with Eric Ritter), and Entourage (2005) and Fashion House (2006), and performances in Rush Hour 2 (2001), Black Scorpion (2001, with Robert Pine and Edward Conna under coordination of Peewee Piemonte), Planet of the Apes (2001, with Tagawa and David Warner), J.J. Abrams' Alias (2002, starring Merrin Dungey, with Keone Young and Shauna Duggins), The Last Samurai (2003, written by John Logan), Collateral (2004), CSI: Miami (2006, along Michael Papajohn), Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane (2007, along Shawn Crowder, Rosine "Ace" Hatem, Dorenda Moore, Boni Yanagisawa, and Spice Williams), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) and Rush Hour 3 (2007).
In 2006, Lew released his first movie, 18 Fingers of Death!, a martial arts movie, for which Lew wrote the story, which he directed, and for which he served as executive producer, post production supervisor and stunt coordinator. In addition he played the lead role of Buford Lee. Fellow Star Trek performer Brad Greenquist and video game voice actor Murray Rubinstein also appeared in this film. In 2008, Lew was among the stunt cast which received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture for the action feature Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Among the nominees are fellow Star Trek stunt performer Joey Anaya, Tony Angelotti, Noby Arden, Dan Barringer, Richard L. Blackwell, Keith Campbell, Jay Caputo, Alex Chansky, Chien Funan, Shawn Crowder, Phil Culotta, Mark De Alessandro, John Dixon, Mark Donaldson, Jayson Dumenigo, Thomas DuPont, Paul Eliopoulos, Jeremy Fry, Mickey Giacomazzi, Erica Grace, Charles Grisham, Al Goto, Lisa Hoyle, Yoshio Iizuka, Keii Johnston, Theo Kypri, Christopher Leps, Kurt D. Lott, Rob Mars, Angela Meryl, Tom Morga, Marty Murray, Hugh Aodh O'Brien, Lin Oeding, Jim Palmer, Denney Pierce, J.P. Romano, Bill Ryusaki, Gregg Sargeant, Lincoln Simonds, Gary Ray Stearns, Trampas Thompson, Xuyen Valdivia, Webster Whinery, Webster Whinery, Jr., Brian J. Williams, and Jeff Wolfe.
Lew later served as fight coordinator for Get Smart (2008), as stunt coordinator for the thriller Dark World (2008, with Jeff Rector, Chris Torres, and Justin Rodgers Hall), and appeared in the adventure film The Carbon Copy (2008, starring Jonathan Breck), the action film Taken By Force (2008, with Branscombe Richmond), The Girl From the Naked Eye (2009, with stunts by Chien Funan, Panuvat Anthony Nanakornpanom, and Jade Quon), and Streets of Blood (2009).
External links[]
- JamesLew.com – official site
- James Lew at Wikipedia
- James Lew at the Internet Movie Database