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Lionheart (1990 Film)
''Lionheart'', released internationally under several names including ''A.W.O.L: Absent Without Leave'', ''Wrong Bet'', and ''Leon'', is a 1990 American martial arts film directed by Sheldon Lettich, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and co-starring Brian Thompson, along with Harrison Page, Deborah Rennard, Lisa Pelikan, and Ashley Johnson. Van Damme plays a French Foreign Legionnaire. When his brother is seriously injured, he returns to Los Angeles to enter the underground fighting circuit to raise money for his brother's family. The film's cast and crew included Michel Qissi who appeared in earlier Van Damme films: Tong Po, as the villain in ''Kickboxer'' and as Parades, a Kumite entrant in '' Bloodsport''. Sheldon Lettich helped write ''Bloodsport'', and ''Double Impact''. ''Lionheart'' grossed $24.3 million on a $6 million budget. Plot Lyon Gaultier is in the French Foreign Legion stationed in Djibouti, East Africa. After his brother, who lives in Los Angeles, is set on fire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheldon Lettich
Sheldon Lettich ( ; born January 14, 1951) is an American screenwriter, film director and producer. He is best known for his collaborations with Jean-Claude Van Damme and his work in the action film genre. Early life He was born in New York City, but moved to California at a young age and grew up in the Los Angeles area. After graduation from high school he spent nearly four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving as a radio operator in South Vietnam with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, and later with the elite 1st Force Reconnaissance Company based at Camp Pendleton, California. He worked his way through college as a professional photographer, and attended the AFI Conservatory's Center for Advanced Film Studies as a Cinematography Fellow. Although his initial career goal was to become a director of photography, at the AFI his interests branched out to encompass writing and directing, which became the two fields where he found eventual success in the entertainment business. Wri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, and its Greater Los Angeles, sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in Los Angeles Basin, a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Speakman
Jeff Speakman (born November 8, 1958) is an American actor and a martial artist in the art of American Kenpo and Japanese Gōjū-ryū, earning black belts in each. Between 2008 and 2018, he was President of the International Kempo Federation. Early life Speakman was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, where he was a springboard diver at John Hersey High School and achieved All-American status. He graduated from Missouri Southern State College. He has said that the television show ''Kung Fu'' got him interested in martial arts, and he began by studying the Okinawan martial art of Gōjū-ryū until achieving black belt rank. His instructor then recommended that if he was really intent in pursuing martial arts as a lifestyle, then he should go looking for Ed Parker, a friend of his master. Speakman sold his car to pay for the moving expenses and met Parker at one of the latter's tournaments. Speakman spent years training in American Kenpo under his princip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Langton
Jeff Langton (born December 11, 1956) is an American actor and martial arts performer and practitioner. He is also a professional boxing trainer, cornerman, and cutman. Early life Jeff was born in Pasadena, California and raised between San Jose, California and Brooklyn, New York. His father was a member of the Marine Corps Boxing Team and later trained young Langton in the "sweet science." When Langton was 13, he joined the Police Athletic League and trained as an amateur boxer with Gus Spencer. He also trained at Garden City Boxing Club and Bath Beach Health Club in Brooklyn New York. As a young man he also trained in martial arts as well as boxing. He trained in Tae Kwon Do with Dan Kyu Choi. He became the captain of Choi's Institute of Tae Kwon Do Championship Team and then went on to be California State Tae Kwon Do Champion. He also received a black belt in Tae Kwon Do from Master Byung Yu. He was also the first and original member of the world-famous Ernie Reyes West ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abdel Qissi
Abdel Qissi (born 20 January 1960) is a Moroccan-Belgian actor and former boxer with eight recorded fights in the early 1980s. Biography Qissi was born in Oujda, Morocco and moved to Brussels, Belgium in his early years. In the 1980s he had a boxing career of eight fights consisting of five wins, two via knockout, one draw and two losses. Through his brother Michel, Qissi later became an associate of Jean-Claude van Damme to which he starred in some of Van Damme's movies. He was a candidate in the commune of Ixelles for the 2006 Belgian local elections on the right-wing Mouvement Réformateur The Reformist Movement (french: Mouvement Réformateur, MR) is a liberal French-speaking political party in Belgium. MR is traditionally a conservative-liberal party, but it also contains social-liberal factions. The party is in coalition as ... (MR) but was not elected, receiving 322 preferential votes. Professional boxing record Source: Filmography References External ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clement Von Franckenstein
Clement George Freiherr von und zu Franckenstein (28 May 1944 – 9 May 2019) was an English actor. He was best known for portraying President D'Astier in ''The American President'' (1995), the English Investor in '' Lionheart'' (1990), the Opening Man in ''Death Becomes Her'' (1992), Pascal Ferney in ''The Evening Star'' (1996), Frances Triebverbrecher in '' Take Me Home Tonight'' (2011), Sen. Sestimus Amydias in ''Hail, Caesar!'' (2016), and Boss Cass in the '' Ty the Tasmanian Tiger'' video game series (2002–2005). Biography Born in Sunninghill, then in Buckinghamshire, on 28 May 1944, Franckenstein was the only child of Editha and Georg von und zu Franckenstein; his father was an Austrian ''Reichsfreiherr'' and diplomat who stayed in England after the ''Anschluss'' and received a British knighthood and British nationality. Franckenstein's parents died in an aircraft crash in Germany on 14 October 1953, and from the age of nine he was brought up by his parents' British fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Halme
Tony Christian Halme (January 6, 1963 – January 8, 2010) was a Finnish politician, athlete, author, actor, and singer. He was a member of the Finnish Parliament from 2003 to 2007, representing the True Finns party as an independent politician. Halme was also known by the pseudonym '' Viikinki'', which he used while appearing in '' Gladiaattorit'', a Finnish version of the TV game show '' Gladiators'', in the 1990s. He was also a professional wrestler best known for his appearances with Catch Wrestling Association (CWA), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name Ludvig Borga; a mixed martial artist and the first fighter from the Nordic countries to ever compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC); and a professional boxer who held the Finnish and the American heavyweight title. During his time in CWA, he was an accomplished main eventer, who headlined many events for the company including the company's flagship event Eur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Blanks
William Wayne Blanks (born September 1, 1955) is an American fitness personality, martial artist, actor, and the creator of the Tae Bo exercise program. Early life and education Blanks was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. He began his study of the martial arts at the age of eleven, attending Karate and Taekwondo classes. He was born with an anomaly in his hip joints that impaired his movement. The resulting clumsiness aroused taunts from Blanks' siblings and led his instructors to believe that he would never accomplish much. Blanks found the answer to these challenges in karate. When he saw Bruce Lee on TV, he decided he wanted to be a world martial-arts champion. Career Blanks was hired as a bodyguard for lead actress Catherine Bach during the filming of 1988's '' Driving Force'', which was filmed in Manila during a time of political unrest. Blanks impressed the producers and was written into the script in a supporting role. This led to Blanks' work in several martial arts film ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michel Qissi
Michel Qissi ( ar, ميشيل قيسي; born Mohammed Qissi on 12 September 1962) is a Belgian Moroccan actor, best known for his role as Tong Po in the 1989 martial arts film ''Kickboxer''. Biography Qissi was born in Oujda, Morocco and moved to Brussels, Belgium at the age of 2. He began training in boxing at seven years old, and became an amateur champion in his weight class at 17. He also went on to study Shōtōkan Karate, Muay Thai and Kickboxing. He befriended Jean-Claude van Damme at an early age and they grew up together with the same love for action films and training in martial arts. In 1982, Qissi and Van Damme moved to the United States in the hope of becoming action stars. In 1984 they both were cast as extras in the film ''Breakin''', before landing their big break in 1986. After obtaining an interview with Menahem Golan of Cannon Films, they secured a three-picture deal, the first of which was the highly successful '' Bloodsport'', in which Van Damme starred a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Squash (sport)
Squash is a racket-and- ball sport played by two or four players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow, rubber ball. The players alternate in striking the ball with their rackets onto the playable surfaces of the four walls of the court. The objective of the game is to hit the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. There are about 20 million people who play squash regularly world-wide in over 185 countries. The governing body of Squash, the World Squash Federation (WSF), is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but the sport is not part of the Olympic Games, despite a number of applications. Supporters continue to lobby for its incorporation in a future Olympic program. The Professional Squash Association (PSA) organizes the pro tour. History Squash has its origins in the older game of rackets which was played in London's prisons in the 19th century. Later, around 1830, boys at Harrow School noticed that a punctured ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Life Insurance
Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of an insured person (often the policyholder). Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness can also trigger payment. The policyholder typically pays a premium, either regularly or as one lump sum. The benefits may include other expenses, such as funeral expenses. Life policies are legal contracts and the terms of each contract describe the limitations of the insured events. Often, specific exclusions written into the contract limit the liability of the insurer; common examples include claims relating to suicide, fraud, war, riot, and civil commotion. Difficulties may arise where an event is not clearly defined, for example, the insured knowingly incurred a risk by consenting to an experimenta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global cultural, financial, entertainment, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, health care and life sciences, research, technology, education, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
