06/05/1957
Seoul, South Korea:
Korean taekwondo stylist Kim Tae-Jeong was discovered by Raymond Chow, who was looking for a "double" to replace the late Bruce Lee when Golden Harvest opted to finish GAME OF DEATH (1978). Kim was a very nice kicking stylist who would later play Bruce's "brother" and play his double in a sequel entitled TOWER OF DEATH. His final fight scene against fellow Korean Hwang Jang-Lee is hailed as one of his best fight scenes. In 1985, Corey Yuen selected Kim to play the ghost of Bruce Lee in his Hong Kong-U.S. crossover NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER. His voice was dubbed by a voice actor because Kim spoke no English so he spoke all of his lines in his native Korean with American actor Kurt McKinney. Kim had also worked in his native Korea, his most popular film there being PLEASE MISS BE PATIENT (1981), a martial arts action comedy. Sadly on the weekend of August 27, 2011, Kim passed away after suffering a hemorrhage after having a stomach ache. Kim was 54 years old.
