One day in 1966, a stuntman Jean LeBell Called to the set of the TV series “The Green Hornet” Bruce Lee, A future martial arts superstar who played Kato, the crime-fighting sidekick of the Hornet. It seems that Ms. Lee was hurting other stuntmen.
The stunt coordinator asked Mr. LeBell, a former judo champion and professional wrestler, to teach Mr. Lee a lesson, possibly using a headlock.
Mr. LeBell later recalled in a number of interviews that he went further: Mr. Lee said, “Take me down or kill me!” Instead, they came to appreciate different skill sets, and Mr. LeBell became one of Mr. Lee’s favorite stuntmen.
They also trained together, combining LeBell’s expertise as a grappler with Lee’s kung fu flair.
LeBell never became as famous as Lee, who died in 1973, but he remained well into his early 80s when he played, among other things, a corpse falling out of a coffin in an episode of the TV series Castle. He is one of Hollywood’s most popular stuntmen.
At 20, he was beaten by John Wayne. “Big Jim McLain” (1952).
Nine years later he was kicked by Elvis Presley. “Blue Hawaii”.
And he was hit several times by James Caan.
‘All the stars in Hollywood have beaten me,’ said Lebel told AARP magazine in 2015. “The more you get punched in the nose, the richer you get. People who enjoy their work don’t go to work. So I had a lot of fun doing stunts.”
LeBell passed away on August 9 at his home in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 89 years old. His death was announced by his trustee and business manager Kelly Cunningham, but he did not specify a cause.
Ivan Gene LeBell was born on October 9, 1932 in Los Angeles. his mother, Eileen (Moss) Lebel, Promoted boxing and wrestling matches at the Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles. His father, Maurice, was an osteopath and dietician who died in 1941 after being paralyzed in a swimming accident.
Gene began learning to fight at the age of seven when his mother sent him to the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
“I went on Ed Strangler Lewis Rubell reportedly said on the Slam Wrestling website in 2005. Mr Lewis asked him: Want to do Greco-Roman? Want to freestyle? Or do you want to fight? “
“What’s grappling?” Jean asked.
“It’s a combination of everything,” Lewis said. “You can hit them, you can gouge their eyes out.”
he was sold
He began learning judo at the age of 12 (although his mother told the Los Angeles Times in 1955 that when he was beaten by a petite teenager who knew judo, he was inspired a little later in high school. said). Developed to Elite Level: He won both the heavyweight and overall titles at his Union Championship that year in the U.S. Amateur. He successfully defended his title at the Olympic Auditorium in front of his mother the following year.
During one of the seizures, he said he heard his mother’s voice screaming over the din of the crowd. take care! Suffocate him!
“The announcer said, ‘I think Jean Lebelle’s mother is prejudiced,'” Lebelle recalled to the Los Angeles Times. “I was embarrassed!”
His mother’s Hollywood connections led to Mr. LeBell’s early stunt work with John Wayne and friendship with George Reeves, star of the TV show The Adventures of Superman.
He turned to professional wrestling in late 1955 after realizing he could not make a living from judo.
Mr. LeBell never became famous in the ring or became a great wrestler in his own name or masked as “The Hangman”. However, he gained attention for his role as an enforcer, forcing other wrestlers to stick to the script even when they didn’t want to.
“Gene pissed me off that wrestling is a performative art.” Bob Calhoun The person who worked with LeBell on his autobiography, The Godfather of Grappling (2005), said in a telephone interview: “But he was old school. He didn’t say wrestling wasn’t on the rise.”
Although not a star, Lebel was awarded the Iron Mike Mazurki Award in 1995 by the Cauliflower Alley Club, a wrestler’s fraternity, for his success beyond wrestling. Did it. Mr. LeBell was inducted into the National Wrestling His Alliance Hall of Fame in 2011.
His work as a stuntman took off in earnest in the 1960s, appearing in TV series such as Route 66, Eye Spy, The Incredible Hulk, Fall Guys, and Lee Majors as a film stuntman. Did. He also appeared in films such as ‘Planet of the Apes’ (1968), ‘Towering His Inferno’ (1974) and Steven Seagal’s crime drama ‘Out of Justice’ (1991). .
Mr. LeBell also had a long list of acting credits, mostly shorthand. I played an announcer.
Outside of his film and television work, in 1963 he attended previews of today’s mixed martial arts fights, where he faced middleweight boxer Milo Savage, landing a choke hold that knocked Savage unconscious in the fourth round. defeated him at A spectator tried to stab Mr. LeBell as it took him a while to wake up and the crowd was enraged.
“It was a tough night, but ‘Judo’ Jean defended his sporting honor against the boxer.” Jonathan Snowden wrote in “Shooters: The Toughest Men in Professional Wrestling” (2012).
In 1976, Rebel officiated a bout in Tokyo between heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali and wrestler Antonio Inoki. In what was dubbed the “World Martial Arts Championship”, the two ended up kicking each other for 15 rounds, with Ali landing only two punches, resulting in a draw.
LeBell said he would have won the match had Inoki not received a one-point penalty for the karate kick to Ali’s groin.
Later that year, Mr. LeBell was arrested and charged with murder along with pornographer Jack Ginsberg, who murdered a private investigator. LeBell was acquitted of murder, but was convicted of conspiracy to let Ginsburgs into and out of the murder scene. His conviction was overturned by the California Court of Appeals.
Mr. LeBell also worked with many wrestlers over the years, including Rowdy Roddy Piper and Ronda Rousey, and trained under martial artist and actor Chuck Norris.
Most recently, director Quentin Tarantino used LeBell and Lee’s first meeting on the set of “The Green Hornet” as the basis for a scene in the 2019 film Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. used. Brad Pitt as a stuntman I threw Lee’s character in the car.
Mr. LeBell, known as Midge, is survived by his twice-married, once-divorced wife, Eleanor (Martindale) LeBell. his son, David; his daughter, Monica Pandis; his stepson, Danny Martindale; his stepdaughter, Stacey Martindale; and four grandchildren. His brother, wrestling promoter Mike, died in 2009. His first marriage ended with the death of his wife. He also married and divorced two other women.
Mr. Calhoun said, “Gene was the toughest man in the room, no matter what the circumstances, whether it was Bruce Lee or anyone else,” but Mr. Lebel offered a practical view of his reputation. .
“Someone who says you’re the toughest guy is great” He told Sports Illustrated in 1995: “But that doesn’t make one car payment. Now I’m beaten by all the wimps in Hollywood and making thousands of dollars. Tell me which one is better.”