Celebrity Biographies
Jim kelly
Jim Kelly remains in the memory of fans of martial arts cinema, because he was the fighter with an African-American hairstyle in “Operation Dragon”, where he shared the screen with Bruce Lee himself. The actor passed away on June 29, 2013 at the age of 67, as a result of cancer, at his California residence.
Born on May 5, 1946 in Paris, not from France, but from Kentucky, James Milton Kelly stood out as a good sportsman from a very young age in basketball and soccer. But after winning a sports scholarship to study at the University of Louisville, he became interested in Japanese martial arts. He soon earned a black belt in karate and ended up opening a karate academy.
Jim Kelly made his film debut with a minimal role in Melinda , from 1972, an action film attached to the subgenre known as ‘blaxplotaition’, a film starring African-Americans with funk music. A year later he was the black fighter in Dragonball , Bruce Lee ‘s most important film , where Kelly played a fighter on the run from the law, after having defended himself against two racist policemen.
The film, considered cult, opened the doors of similar roles for him, in middling films such as Black Belt or Los Demoledores . “I broke the color barrier: I was the first black man to become a martial arts movie star. I’ve always been amazed at how many people remembered me for that because, to be honest, I haven’t done much else in movies the whole this time”, recalled the karate fighter in an interview.
Since the 70s, he has hardly worked as an actor, except for a role as a reporter in the series Autopista hacia el cielo , and some anecdotal appearance in the 90s. “Today I still receive three scripts a year but since there is nothing that I really want to do , I don’t do anything”, he explained in 2010. He shot some commercials, and used to appear at congresses for fans of comics and series B movies.