Martial Artists on Screen: In Memoriam
Film and television did more than any school to make the martial arts popular. These profiles cover the martial artists who worked in front of and behind the camera.
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The profiles
Bruce Lee
1940 – 1973
Martial artist, teacher and actor who opened schools in Seattle, Oakland and Los Angeles, named Jeet Kune Do in 1967 and closed his schools around 1970 to protect the quality of his teaching.
Chuck Norris
1940 – 2026
American martial artist and actor who won the Professional Middleweight Karate Championship in 1968, founded the Chuck Norris System and the United Fighting Arts Federation, and created the KickStart Kids character-education programme.
Richard Norton
1950 – 2025
Australian martial artist who co-created Zen Do Kai, appeared opposite Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan, and became fight coordinator on Mad Max: Fury Road and the Suicide Squad films.
James Lew
1952 – 2026
Emmy-winning stunt coordinator and fight choreographer whose five-decade career ran from the original Kung Fu television series to Avengers: Endgame.
Every profile in this section follows the In Memoriam research standard: deaths confirmed before anything is written, every claim sourced, conflicts between sources printed, and promotional claims labelled as such.