The Associated Press has confirmed that Jim Kelly who co-starred with Bruce Lee in the film Enter the Dragon has died of cancer at the age of 67.
The National Enquirer orginally reported this on Sunday.
Kelly’s death had also been reported on Wikipedia and on the fan forum Mixedmartialarts.com as well as on Facebook by someone who says she is his ex-wife.
However, there have been false reports of Kelly’s death before, so the additional confirmation by the Associated Press was important.
As most every Bruce Lee fan knows, Enter the Dragon was the first American produced martial arts film.
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Kelly played the role of Williams and went on to star in such blaxploitatiion films as Melinda and Black Belt Jones.
In an April interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Kelly commented on the discrimination faced by Bruce Lee.
Kelly said Lee “caught hell” for being Chinese in Hollywood.
“They didn’t want him in Hollywood,” Kelly said.
According to Kelly, the TV Series Kung Fu starring David Carradine was actually made for Bruce Lee.
The writer was told by the studio they wanted to do it, but with one major change.
“Hey, everything’s good. We just can’t have a Chinese guy that starred in an American (film). So we gotta get a white guy and make him look half-Chinese. But we don’t want Bruce because he’s Chinese.”
You can read more about Kelly’s thoughts on this in the San Francisco Chronicle and more about his reported death in the National Enquirer.
From Howard Lee via Facebook: RE Death of a Co-Star in Enter the Dragon: "RIP. For some reason I thought he was much older than 67."
From David Lee via Faceboo RE: Death of a co-star in Enter the Dragon: "Epitome of a cool ass brother in the 70s."
From Yogi Tam via Facebook RE: Death of co-star in Enter the Dragon: ". I loved his role in Enter The Dragon. His famous line "Mr. Han, you come right out of a comic book." I loved some of his other roles after ETD. He played as Black Belt Jones and his techniques were crisp and had power."
from Ed Jay via Facebook RE: Death of co-star in Enter the Dragon: "Wow, I saw him a few years ago and he looked great."
From Ray Lowe via Facebook RE: Death of a co-star in Enter the Dragon: "Sad news…I saw him just a few months ago at WonderCon Anaheim. Looks kind of like an older Obama.
Hoover Ng via Facebook RE: Death of Co-Star in Enter the Dragon: "Any of us that grew up in that time understood that we Chinese had to "Know Our Place". I say power to the people."