James Lew, 1952-2026: Fifty Years Between Kung Fu and Endgame
He started on the original Kung Fu television series in the 1970s and was still working on Avengers: Endgame. In between he won a Primetime Emmy for stunt coordination — a category that barely acknowledges martial artists at all.
- Born
- 6 September 1952
- Died
- 23 August 2026, Los Angeles, age 73
- Won
- Primetime Emmy, Outstanding Stunt Coordination, for Marvel’s Luke Cage
- Career
- Martial artist, actor, stuntman, fight choreographer — five decades
Inside Kung Fu inducted him as one of its Martial Arts Greats, in company that included Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jackie Chan. But the Emmy is the more unusual credential, because it was awarded by an industry body rather than a martial arts one, for work most viewers never consciously notice.
What a school owner should take from James Lew
Fifty years of continuous work in an industry that discards martial artists in their thirties. That is the achievement, and the mechanism was that he kept moving up the credit list — performer, then coordinator, then the person other performers answered to.
The parallel for a school owner is exact and uncomfortable. If your business still depends on you demonstrating on the floor, you have a career with a physical expiry date. Lew’s answer, and the answer for an ageing instructor, is the same: move from doing it to directing the people who do it, and make sure the move happens before your body forces it.
Sources, and what we could not confirm
- Use 23 August 2026. Several outlets published on the 24th and some rendered that as the death date.
- Cause of death was not officially announced. He had been hospitalised beforehand.
- Principal sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, Legacy.com, USAdojo, and published biographical records.
Corrections and first-hand recollections are welcome and will be added with attribution.