Stars Karate

Karate Kid / Star Wars question...?

The kid who lost to Daniel in the semi-finals in karate kid by hurting him and getting DQ'ed...is that the same actor who also played Luke Skywalker in what I think was Star Wars episode IV?

No, I definitely think he looks just like him but Mark Hamill was older then that kid as Karate Kid came out about 7 years after Star Wars. The guy Daniel beat is Ron Thomas I believe, if not he is Rob Garrison.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087538/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/

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The Terrible Origins of Ed Parker

There are a bunch of less than honorable stories in the martial arts. There is one I heard about Kenpo Karate and Ed Parker is one of the worst I have ever heard however. Perhaps, if anybody knows the truth or falsity of this tale, they could inform me.

Ed Parker is credited with teaching many stars, including Elvis, putting on the biggest tournament in the world for years, the Internationals, being the founder of modern Kenpo, and all manner of other deeds. He has had many students, and his abilities are well known. In the beginning; however, when he first started teaching, he was only a brown belt.

Shotokan karate was the art he was teaching in those early days, and this is illustrated in one of his earliest books. Apparently he ran out of material to teach his students, and his students wanted more, so he returned to Hawaii and asked his instructor to teach him more. Unfortunately his instructor refused to do so. Ed Parker was teaching without permission and his instructor took exception.

Ed Parker then ran into a fellow named Jimmy Wu, who had mastered gung fu, but who couldn’t speak but a smidgeon of English. Ed Parker took Jimmy home and put him up  while Jimmy created the actual art of Kenpo. Ed Parker suddenly had all sorts of stuff to teach his students.

During this time, Ed Parker asked Jimmy to co-author a book on Kenpo, and Jimmy, while still being lacking in the English language department, spent his days writing the book and teaching Ed and some of his students his art. Jimmy looked at a rough translation of the book that Ed was planning on submitting to a publisher, and he couldn’t find his own name mentioned at all. Even though he was partners with Ed Parker, Jimmy was doing all the work, so he was surprised at this fact.

He is supposed to have asked, why his name was not on the book. Ed Parker asked if they could take a drive, he had an errand to run, but he would explain on the way. Ed Parker drove Jimmy into Hollywood, but didn’t say anything about the book. Ed Parker let Jimmy out of the car on Hollywood Boulevard and drove away.

Jimmy then stood on the street corner with only the clothes on his back and a single quarter to his name. With that last twent-five cents he went to a pay phone and called one of the students he had been teaching.  In broken English, terribly confused, he told the student that he didn’t know where he was, but Ed  Parker had driven off and left him.

He had been writing and teaching, and creating a whole system for Ed Parker, and he had been betrayed by him. The question I have is, is there any truth in this story? If anybody has the true story on it, I sure would like to know.

About the Author

Al Case has researched kenpo and other systems for 4O years. A writer for the magazines, he is the originator of Matrixing Technology. You can get his interesting and free ebook at Monster Martial Arts.