Gene LeBell is known as The Toughest Man Alive
He holds the ranks of 10th Dan in Judo and 9th Dan in Jujutsu - one of the highest graded Sensei outside Japan, a true Grappling Master
He was World Wrestling and World Judo Champion in the 60s - he will be 88 in 2020
He has been a Hollywood Stuntman for years and has been in many films you will have seen
He was in the first ever "Mixed" match where he fought against a Boxer, Milo Savage, who notoriously used fingerless bag gloves with knuckle dusters
He was one of the few to publicly beat Bruce Lee in a sparring match - and became Bruce's grappling teacher, an mentored all of the early JKD community
He choked out Seagal on a film set (I tell that story from the POV of Roger Carpenter who was there and told it to us at a seminar in 1998)
He is noted as being "the only man that Chuck Norris fears" - and Chuck, who trained grappling with him once said "Gene LeBell is the mentor of us all"
Coined the sayings
"a man can take being kicked or punched - but can he take being dumped on his head?"
"walk with a knowledge of grappling and you will never walk alone"
His book Pro Wrestling Finishing Holds, at the time of publishing in the 70s, was considered the definitive work at the time, and included over 160 techniques
The clip below is supposed to be "Volume 1" - there was actually no Volume 2, 3 and 4, this was really a complementary tape to the book - you were supposed to buy the book
50 minutes are him demonstrating the techniques - obvious ones like the Sleeper are there - many are practical, some are crazy an just outrageous
Interviewed through the tape is the "10 man challenge match" this is leading up to, which is a fun and elaborate bit of theatre from that time - "opponents" include Benny The Jet, whose studio this is filmed at, Manny himself, Mike Vendrell who was later the teacher of Brandon Lee
www.youtube.com/watch?v=es_CfKtMkVw&t=1811s
Gene predates the WWF/WWE era and wrestled when Pro Wrestling was real, though publicly "boring" and not followed
He mentored and trained some wrestlers including Rowdy Roddy Piper
He was challenged by the Gracies in the mid to late 90s to have a match and prove himself - they wanted to match him with Rickson or Royce, Gene said he was too old and should be matched against Helio, so the match never happened
He is the Godfather, and Judo Sensei, of Rhonda Rousey
Gene's Movie and TV work include :
3 Elvis movies
The Green Hornet TV show - with Bruce Lee
Out For Justice - the Seagal film where the choking incident happened (Dan Inosanto does the stick fight in the bar)
Raging Bull
Remo
Walking Tall - with The Rock
Man On The Moon - with Jim Carrey
24 - TV
Spiderman 2
Mr and Mrs Smith
Batman and Robin
Die Hard
Robocop
Hard To Kill
Total Recall
Tango and Cash
Lockup
The Running Man
Rocky 4 and Rocky
Magnum - TV
Dukes of Hazzard - TV
The Fall Guy - TV
Any Which Way You Can
Every Which Way But Loose
Chips - TV
The Incredible Hulk - TV
Kung Fu - TV
Some older Tigers will remember the Saturday afternoon wresting on TV in the UK
Big Daddy
Giant Haystacks
Johnny Saint
Rollerball Rocco
Mick McManus
etc
Gene and his guys, who predate the 80s/90s Hulk Hogan/Ric Flair WWF and WWE, were the American version, with some Hollywood flair
I always imagined, had Gene been living in the UK, he would have been a pub landlord, down the gym, wrestling and boxing
Can you imagine a match between Gene and Big Daddy?
