We Were Kung Fu Fighting
by Gary Phillips
I bet you missed this, but in stores this week is the boxed set from Warner Home Video's so-called Urban Action Collection featuring the, ah, best of Jim Kelly's oeuvre. For the uninitiated, in the era of blaxpolitation flicks in the '70s, Kelly, a karate champion partially raised in San Diego, starred in Black Belt Jones, The Tattoo Connection (repackaged as Black Belt Jones 2), Hot Potato, Black Samurai (a not particularly good adaption based on a series of action novels about a character named Robert Sand by the underrated, late mystery novelist Marc Olden), teamed with those stalwarts Jim Brown and Fred "The Hammer" Williamson in Three the Hard Way, and played a mute American Indian with a 'fro in a western with Messrs. Brown and Williamson, Lee Van Cleef and Barry Sullivan, Take a Hard Ride.
Mr. Kelly, who today owns a tennis club in the San Diego area, was also one of the stars of Enter the Dragon, the Hollywood blockbuster that made Bruce Lee an international star. Kelly as Williams in Dragon didn't live to take part in the big showdown, but his brief time in the story—killed by the flick's villain, Han—highlighted his skills and screen presence, leading to his aforementioned starring roles in those B efforts. His last gig before the cameras was in a LeBron James Nike commercial, "Chamber of Fear," riffing on those kung fu movies in 2004.
Oh, oh, oh, ohhh...theme music up...Jim Kelly is still kung fu fighting.
