Master Simon Rhee (born 28 October 1957; age 67) is a stuntman, stunt coordinator, and fight choreographer who appeared as a Vengeance security officer in Star Trek Into Darkness under stunt coordination by John Stoneham, Jr.
Born in San Jose, California, Rhee spent his childhood in Seoul, Korea where he also started his martial arts training. He continued his training in Tae Kwan Do in San Francisco and Los Angeles and has earned a 7th degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and a 4th degree Black Belt in Hap Ki Do. He participated in several tournaments and earned many titles as Grand Champion. He also runs his own Tae Kwon Do training center in Woodland Hills, Calabasas and has been taught over the last forty years. His brother Phillip Rhee is an actor and producer.
Rhee won two Taurus World Stunt Awards. The first in 2002 in the category Best Fight for his work as stunt double for Jackie Chan in the action comedy sequel Rush Hour 2, shared with Michael Li, Mark Hicks, and Xuyen Valdivia. The second in 2007 in the category Best Fire Stunt for his performance in the war drama Letters from Iwo Jima. He received another nomination in the same category for Letters from Iwo Jima, shared with stuntman Steven Ito.
Rhee also received six Screen Actors Guild Award nominations as part of the Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble. He won two of these awards for Heroes in 2009 and for Inception in 2010. His nominations include Heroes in 2008, Transformers: Dark of the Moon in 2012, The Dark Knight Rises in 2013, and Daredevil in 2016.
Among Rhee's earliest work are The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977, with Branscombe Richmond), the short film Firefight (1983, with Brian Thompson and Gary Kasper), the action film Furious (1984), the action drama Killzone (1985), and the action film Silent Assassins (1988, with Bill Erwin).
Rhee and his brother Phillip became well known for their work on Best of the Best (1989), Best of the Best II (1993), Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back (1995), and Best of the Best 4: Without Warning (1998). Simon Rhee worked as stunt coordinator on all four films. The films also featured Star Trek performers Louise Fletcher, James Lew, Kane Hodder, Billy Burton, Jr., Bobby Burns, Gilbert Combs, Don Charles McGovern, Charles Picerni, Jr., Steve Picerni, Meg Foster, Patrick Kilpatrick, Mike Genovese, Nicholas Worth, Albie Selznick, Manny Perry, Günther Ziegler, Carl Ciarfalio, Vince Deadrick, Jr., Jeffrey S. Jensen, Steven Lambert, David LeBell, Gene LeBell, Irving Lewis, Frank Lloyd, Eric Norris, Charles Picerni, Denney Pierce, Charlie Skeen, J.J. Perry, Christopher McDonald, Mark Rolston, Michael Bailey Smith, Cole McKay, Kurt D. Lott, Erik Stabenau, Justin Sundquist, Jessica Collins, Monty Rex Perlin, Robert Alonzo, Jane Austin, Ken Clark, Shauna O'Brien, Mike Mukatis, Rich Cetrone, Carol Daniels, Scott Leva, and John Moio.
He worked as stunt double for actors such as Jackie Chan on Rush Hour 3 (2007), George Takei in You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), Heroes (2007), and Supah Ninjas (2011), Ken Jeong, Tzi Ma, Tim Kang, Brian Tee, Randall Park in Supah Ninjas (2011), and Byung-hun Lee in Terminator Genisys (2015).
Other projects he performed stunts in include Double Impact (1991), Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991), Universal Soldier (1992), the action film Bad Blood (1994, with Michael J. Sarna, Gary Wayton, Jim Wilkey, Don Pike, Gary Pike, Steve Kelso, and Jeff Cadiente), Cyber-Tracker 2 (1995, with Anthony De Longis, Chuck Borden, Chris Doyle, and Anita Hart), the science fiction film The Silencers (1996, with John Alden, Craig Baxley, Jr., Gary Baxley, and Merritt Yohnka), Escape from L.A. (1996), Beverly Hills Ninja (1997, with Jay Caputo, Eliza Coleman, Eugene Collier, Al Goto, Jeff Imada, Eddie Mathews, and Hiro Koda), Spawn (1997), Red Corner (1997), High Voltage (1997, with Eddie Perez and Bridgett Riley), Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), and Blade (1998) as well as the television series Growing Pains (1992, with James Lew, Gina Philips, and Sam Anderson), Nash Bridges (1998, with Stephen Lee, Caroline Lagerfelt, and Michael Owen), Martial Law (1998, with Tom Wright, Mike Starr, F.J. Rio, Jim Lau, and Brian Simpson), Team Knight Rider (1998), L.A. Heat (1997-1999, with Kenneth Tigar), and Walker, Texas Ranger (1994-2000, starring Clarence Gilyard, Jr. and Noble Willingham).
As stunt coordinator, Rhee worked on the action film T.N.T. (1997), the comedy Psycho Sushi (1997), The Substitute: Failure Is Not an Option (2001), episodes of Mad TV (2008) and My Own Worst Enemy (2008, with Christian Slater), the short thriller The Honeysting (2009, with Rife Sibley and James Lew), the thriller Game of Death (2011, with Ron Balicki, Marie Fink, and Aaron Toney),The Muppets (2011), Don't Let Me Go (2013), the comedy Wedding Palace (2013), and Bones (2005-2014), Grimm (2012-2015), Jessica Jones (2015), Pretty Little Liars (2011-2016), and Mistresses (2016).
Further film and television work can be seen in Charlie's Angels (2000), Kung Pow! Enter the Fist (2002, with Jennifer Tung, Michael Li, Al Goto, Hiro Koda, Marcus Young, Mike Gunther, and Leigh Hennessy), J.J. Abrams's Alias (2002, with Victor Garber, Terry O'Quinn, Greg Grunberg, Jeffrey Chase, and Shauna Duggins), Windtalkers (2002), Madonna's music video Die Another Day (2002), Hulk (2003), The Last Samurai (2003), the reality show Next Action Star (2004), Collateral (2004), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Mission: Impossible III (2006, directed by J.J. Abrams), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), 18 Fingers of Death! (2006), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2003, with Paul Eliopoulos), Boston Legal (2004, with William Shatner, Todd Stashwick, Aisha Hinds, René Auberjonois, Don McManus, and Sharon Lawrence), and 24 (2007, with Trace Cheramie, Erik Stabenau, and Yoshio Iizuka and coordinated by Jeff Cadiente), Superhero Movie and Get Smart (both 2008), Tropic Thunder (2008), Race to Witch Mountain (2009, with The Rock), Lost (2008, with Daniel Dae Kim), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2009, with Thomas Dekker, Edward Conna, Max Daniels, Rosine "Ace" Hatem, and Spice Williams), Brannon Braga's FlashForward (2009, with John Cho and Gabrielle Union), Southland (2010), Undercovers (2010, with Michael Reilly Burke, Terry Jackson, Lin Oeding, and Paul Lacovara), No Ordinary Family (2010, with Jimmy Bennett, Autumn Reeser, and Stephen Collins), Chuck (2007-2010), and Criminal Minds (2012, with Vanessa Branch), Battleship (2012), Red Dawn (2012, with Chris Hemsworth), The Hangover Part III (2013), The Lone Ranger (2013), Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), episodes of True Blood (2014, with Chien Funan, Henry Kingi, Jr., Dorian Kingi, Mark Wagner, and Kiante Elam), Sons of Anarchy (2013-2014), Daredevil (2015, with Lauren Mary Kim and Panuvat Anthony Nanakornpanom), Supergirl (2015, with Shauna Duggins and Mark Ginther), Rizzoli & Isles (2015-2016, with Kevin Derr and Paul E. Short), Fear the Walking Dead (2016, with Cheryl Lewis), and Rush Hour (2016, coordinated by James Lew and Jeff Wolfe), and Independence Day: Resurgence (2016).
Later stunt work include The Great Wall (2016), episodes of Mom (2017), MacGyver (2016-2017, with Alina Andrei and John Dixon and coordinated by Jeff Wolfe), Iron Fist (2017), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2017, coordinated by Tanner Gill), Shooter (2017, with Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Michelle Krusiec, Craig Reed, and Omid Zader), The Last Ship (2016-2017, with Ron Balicki, Boni Yanagisawa, Marcus Young, Mickey Cassidy, Kevin Derr, Anthony Molinari, and Denney Pierce), Lucifer (2017, coordinated by Merritt Yohnka), Lethal Weapon (2017), Fresh Off the Boat (2017), Runaways (2017, with Annie Wersching and Brigid Brannagh), Westworld (2016-2018), Legion (2018), Reverie (2018, coordinated by Randy Hall), and Here and Now (2018).
Rhee worked as co-stunt coordinator on two episodes of Iron Fist (2017), as additional stunt coordinator on Alien: Covenant (2017), and as stunt coordinator on episodes of The Talk (2017) and Stuck in the Middle (2018), the short drama Herstory (2018), and The Doorman (2020).
External links[]
- SimonRhee.net – official site
- Simon Rhee at the Internet Movie Database
- Simon Rhee at X (formerly Twitter)
- Simon Rhee at iStunt.com
- Simon Rhee at Heroes wiki
- Simon Rhee at Instagram
- 2013 article at MartialArtsEntertainment.com