speakman

Jeff Speakman

Profession: actor, action director, producer

Born: November 8, 1958 (Chicago, Illinois, USA)

Jeff Speakman was relatively unknown to the film industry until his 1991
martial arts hit called The Perfect Weapon. Jeff, along with the help of the
legendary Ed Parker introduced the world to American Kenpo Karate.
Although Ed Parker choreographed the fight scenes and made sure that the
essence of Kenpo stay intact, he did not live to see the release of the
movie. This was a great loss to Jeff, who lost a mentor and a friend.

In his early years Jeff Speakman was an accomplished springboard diver,
and reached great heights without the aid of an coach. Years later he
graduated from Missouri State College with a BA degree in psychology and
also a minor in biology. But what makes this man so great is his martial arts
background and the fact that he founded the American Kenpo Karate
Systems. Jeff himself has a 6th degree black belt in both Goju-Ryu Karate
and American Kenpo Karate. He was also fortunate enough to have studied
under Ed Parker (founder of American Kenpo) and was a personal friend of
him too. Amongst his many accomplishments is the Black Belt Hall of Fame
award for Instructor of the Year.

Before starring in movies Jeff took acting classes for a few years, and in
1988 he got his first role in Side Roads. A significant event in his decision to
star in movies was made after seeing ballet dancer Jean-Claude Van Damme
starring in Blood Sport. It was with the help of Ed Parker, who also
introduced Bruce Lee to the film industry, that he got his break in 1991.
Since The Perfect Weapon he has starred in a total of 14 movies along with
various cameo appearances and a TV series named Kickboxer and the Kid.
Later in Jeff's career he started to appear in many political themed movies
including Land of the Free co-starring William Shatner. This movie was
better than most of his previous efforts like Deadly Outbreak and The
Expert, but still didn't match his earliest work. Even though he does most of
his own fight choreography himself he has never been able to capture that
which made The Perfect Weapon such a classic.

The last few years he has been busy traveling around the world to promote
Kenpo. He holds regular seminars and in his organization there are more
than 50 schools already established. It may have been a while since he
made a martial arts movie but I'm sure he'll return to the film industry in the
near future... we hope so.

Filmography

1999 - Hot Boyz
1999 - Running Red
1998 - Memorial Day
1997 - Escape From Atlantis (TV)
1997 - Land of the Free
1997 - Plato's Run
1997 - Scorpio One
1996 - Timelock
1995 - Deadly Outbreak
1994 - The Expert (actor)
1993 - Street Knight
1991 - The Perfect Weapon (actor)
1990 - Lionheart
1988 - Side Roads