Gary Daniels

Gary Edward Daniels born May 9, 1963 in a small English town outside of London called Woking, England. From the age of five he played football, and at the age of eight he was inspired to study martial arts after watching a movie trailer with Bruce Lee "Exit the dragon“. Along with his father (who was an athlete), Gary entered a kung fu school for three to four years, after which he switched to taekwondo, studying with a South Korean master Ri Ki-ha, known as “Father of British Taekwondo".

At the age of sixteen, he reached the level of black belt and began taking part in International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) tournaments. However, his aggressive style was not liked by British officials, and he lost 3 fights by disqualification, eventually giving up fighting with a record 13-3-0.

Daniels began kickboxing at the age of seventeen under the tutelage of a former British Army boxing champion. Mickey Byrne, and in 1979 made his debut in amateur competitions.

In 1980, he left England and moved to Florida, USA, where he continued his sports career for the next 7 years, collecting the following record in amateur kickboxing: 31 wins (30 by knockout) and 4 losses. The first fight in the USA took place in March 1980, he won by decision Sherman “Big Train” Bergman from Miami Beach. He trained with Peter Cunningham, Jim Graden and former world heavyweight kickboxing champion Joe Lewis.

In Florida, he began taking acting lessons from a famous casting director and teacher, Katie Loughlin. She helped Gary practice in episodic roles in the series “Special Squad” (1985) and “Miami Police” (1986).

By the end of the 80s, Daniels moved to California and began training at the Center Benny Urquidez and in the hall “Piston Kickboxing Gym” Yuki Horiuchi, moving on to professional kickboxing. At the same time, he began to master Muay Thai.

In 1988, he received an offer to play the main character in a movie. For this purpose, Gary arrived in the Philippines, where he participated in filming for two years. These were the filmsExtreme measures” And "The Mystery of the King of the Island of Maize” .

In November 1990, Daniels won the WKBA California State Light Heavyweight Championship and the PKA World Light Heavyweight Championship in England within a month.

In 1991, he starred in the films “fire ring” And "Deadly bet“. On December 3 in Birmingham, England, Daniels fought the 11-time world kickboxing champion in a three-round, no-decision exhibition bout. Don "Dragon" Wilson on World Martial Arts Extravaganza.

In 1992 the films “American fighter” ,"Bloody Fist 4: Deadly Endeavor” ,"The last blow” ,"Justice Mission” and Hong Kong “City Hungter“, in which Gary collaborated with Jackie Chan и Richard Norton.

The following year, he retired from the sport in 1993 to focus more on film. His professional kickboxing record was 4-0-0 with two knockouts.

Throughout the 90s, he starred in B-movie movies with mediocre success, but some gave his career a boost. These were: "Man vs Cyborg” (1994), in which Daniels played a key role and fought against Keith Cook; successful adaptation of the famous manga in the Asian market Tony Randela "Fist of the North Star” (1995) with the role of Kenshiro; “Anger” (1995),"White Tiger” (1996),"Insurgency” (1996),"Bloody moon” (1997) and “Revenge” (1998) with leading roles and good success in the niche.

With the end of the era of B-action films in the 2000s, Daniels did not start acting less frequently, but these were mostly minor roles. The most notable among them were: the role of Ed Parker in the biographical miniseries “The Legend of Bruce Lee” (2008) with modern martial artists Mark Dacascos, Ray Park, Ernest Miller and Michael Jai White; the role of “British” in “Expendables” (2010) Sylvester Stallone, which also had a big star cast; one of the key roles in the action movie “Catch to kill“; Brian Fury - in films based on the game “Tekken” (2009) and “Tekken 2” (2014).

In 2008, a professional fight took place in the ring in Thailand, but Gary lost.

In addition to his roles, he worked on stunts in the films “Black Dynamite” (2009) and “John Wick 2” (2017), and also staged fight scenes in “Replicant” (2006) and “A reluctant fighter” (2011).

The next notable projects were “Leather trade” (2014) and TV series “Kung Fu” (2021), in which Gary played the role of Master Drake.

Continues to keep himself in good shape by training 3 hours a day, 5 times a week.