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James Lew (b. 1952)

Alias:
James Jene Fae Lew

Birthplace:
Escalon, California, USA

Born:
September 6, 1952

Biography from TheMovieDB

James Jene Fae Lew (born September 6, 1952) is an American actor and martial artist. Raised in South Central Los Angeles, James Lew's destiny was to answer a cattle call in Hollywood for the hugely popular Kung Fu (1972) television series. He went on to star in the now collectible Hong Kong film, Young Dragon (1976). He made the move to big budget studio films in 1984. John Carpenter handpicked him as the Martial Arts Choreographer for 20th Century Fox's now cult film, Big Trouble in Little China (1986).  Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mel Gibson, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Dwayne Johnson, David Carradine, Chuck Norris, Dennis Quaid, Kurt Russell, Madonna, Charlie Sheen, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kathleen Turner, Sylvester Stallone, Brandon Lee, Snoop Dogg and the list goes on and on.  James was voted "Favorite Action Star" by fans of Inside Martial Arts magazine. Internet fans voted him into the Hall of Fame in the Martial Arts History Museum. Inside Kung Fu Magazine inducted him as one of the "Martial Arts Greats" alongside legends as Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and his longtime friend Jackie Chan.  Hit Parader Magazine dubbed him "the king of big-screen martial arts villains." From the deadly killer in Red Sun Rising (1994) to the deadly fighter in the comedy spoof Hot Shots 2 (1993), Lew has proven his chops in both drama and comedy. As a stunt/fight coordinator his creative talents shone in the television series The Crow to recent work on the hit video game, The Matrix: Path of Neo (2005). He handpicked elite members for his company, "Hong Kong Wire Action Team," to bring state of the art action to movies. His formula for longevity in the film industry is diversity, hard work and having a whole lot of fun.  Most recently, James Lew wrote, directed and starred in a movie inspired by his personal experiences in the business titled 18 Fingers of Death! (2006). The story follows Buford Lee (James Lew), the most famous unknown "B"-minus, low-budget, martial-arts movie star and Ronald Mack (Maurice Patton), a young black kid from the hood. Together they laugh and bond together on their quest to finally make Buford's break out movie, 18 Fingers of Death! (2006).

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Additional information:

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Film Performances

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Film Production

Action Director:
2021  Made in Chinatown

Assistant Director:
2017  Maximum Impact
2021  Made in Chinatown

Associate Producer:
1986  Big Trouble in Little China
2017  Maximum Impact
2021  Made in Chinatown

Co-Producer:
1986  Big Trouble in Little China
2017  Maximum Impact
2021  Made in Chinatown

Director:
1986  Big Trouble in Little China
2006  18 Fingers of Death!
2017  Maximum Impact
2021  Made in Chinatown

Fight Choreographer:
1986  Big Trouble in Little China
2006  18 Fingers of Death!
2008  Get Smart
2010  Killers
2017  Maximum Impact
2021  Made in Chinatown

Martial Arts Choreographer:
1986  Big Trouble in Little China
1991  Double Impact
2006  18 Fingers of Death!
2008  Get Smart
2010  Killers
2017  Maximum Impact
2021  Made in Chinatown

Stunt Coordinator:
1986  Big Trouble in Little China
1990  Aftershock
1990  Guns
1991  Double Impact
2006  18 Fingers of Death!
2008  Get Smart
2010  Killers
2012  Hijacked
2015  Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser
2017  Maximum Impact
2021  Made in Chinatown

Stunts:
1979  The Fantastic Seven
1986  Big Trouble in Little China
1988  They Live
1989  Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects
1990  Aftershock
1990  Guns
1991  Double Impact
1991  Martial Law II: Undercover
1991  Ring of Fire
1991  Showdown in Little Tokyo
1992  Rapid Fire
1994  Blue Tiger
1994  On Deadly Ground
1995  Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
1996  Escape from L.A.
2001  Planet of the Apes
2004  LArceny
2006  18 Fingers of Death!
2007  Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
2008  Get Smart
2008  Tropic Thunder
2009  Black Dynamite
2010  Inception
2010  Killers
2012  Hijacked
2015  Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser
2017  Maximum Impact
2021  Made in Chinatown

Writer:
1979  The Fantastic Seven
1986  Big Trouble in Little China
1988  They Live
1989  Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects
1990  Aftershock
1990  Guns
1991  Double Impact
1991  Martial Law II: Undercover
1991  Ring of Fire
1991  Showdown in Little Tokyo
1992  Rapid Fire
1994  Blue Tiger
1994  On Deadly Ground
1995  Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
1996  Escape from L.A.
2001  Planet of the Apes
2004  LArceny
2006  18 Fingers of Death!
2007  Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
2008  Get Smart
2008  Tropic Thunder
2009  Black Dynamite
2010  Inception
2010  Killers
2012  Hijacked
2015  Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser
2017  Maximum Impact
2021  Made in Chinatown

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TV Performances

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TV Production

Stunt Coordinator:
1995  Star Trek: Voyager

Stunts:
1995  Star Trek: Voyager
2016  Westworld

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About the Movie Section

Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).

Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).

At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.

Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)

While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:

  • I added "runners up" to Top 10 lists, treating them as ties where applicable and numbering them accordingly at the bottom of each list.
  • Regarding those polls wherein "franchise" movies were submitted as one project until BFI's policy changed to regard them separately, I treated them as ties and renumbered the affected lists accordingly (e.g. the Godfather films).

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  • For additional corrections and profile removals, please e-mail The Open Movie Database (OMDb).

Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).

Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.

Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.