Kim Kahana
| Kim Kahana, Sr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Kim Kahana 1929 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Stunt performer Actor Martial arts instructor |
| Years active | 1953–present |
| Spouse(s) | Sandy Kahana |
| Children | Kim Kahana, Jr. Debbie Kahana Rick Kahana Tony Kahana |
| Website | http://kahanastuntschool.com |
Kim Kahana, Sr. (born 1929) is an American actor, stunt performer and action choreographer of Hawaiian and Japanese descent. He has done stunts for over 300 movies and television programs and runs a stunt school in Groveland, Florida that has trained over 15,000 students.
Unable to read or write, Kahana dropped out of school in third grade. At age 13 he hitchhiked across the United States by himself, sometimes stealing in order to eat. His performing career began as a knife and fire dancer in a stage show called Samoan Warriors.
Kahana served as a paratrooper in the Korean War where he was captured and shot by an enemy firing squad. Feigning death, his captors left him in a mass grave from which he escaped. A hand grenade explosion also rendered him sightless for two years and permanently blind in his left eye. The U.S. Military awarded Kahana one Silver Star and two Bronze Star Medals, as well as two Purple Hearts for his services.
In 1955 Kahana survived a plane crash in the state of Texas that killed the other 32 other people on board. Surviving this crash and his experiences in Korea imbued Kahana with a personal life philosophy of, "Maybe I'm right where I ought to be."
Kahana entered film after the Korean War, working as an extra, playing a motorcycle rider in 1953's The Wild One. When he saw that stunt performers were paid more than extras, he pursued a stunt career, training with Yakima Canutt and John Eppers. By the 1960s and throughout the 70s and 80s, he worked steadily as a stuntman for many films including Cool Hand Luke (1967), Planet of the Apes 1968, Che! (1969), Patton (1970), The Omega Man (1971), Joe Kidd (1972), Soylent Green (1973), Burt Reynolds' Smokey and the Bandit franchise, and the disaster films of Irwin Allen. Kahana also doubled for Charles Bronson in his films for over 20 years.
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