United States
In 1967, Han emigrated to the United States of America, first staying with and teaching at his friend S. O. Choi's hapkido school in California. Han later opened his own school in Los Angeles in 1968. His early years were difficult and he worked in a factory during the day while he taught at a struggling hapkido school in the evening located in an economically depressed area. Later, he relocated his school to the Pacific Palisades area in an effort to be closer to Hollywood and the movie industry.
On July 4, 1969, Han Bong Soo was giving a demonstration of hapkido at a park in Pacific Palisades, California. In the audience was Tom Laughlin. After a spectacular demonstration, Laughlin approached Han about being involved in a movie project called Billy Jack. Han gained critical acclaim for staging and performing some of the most realistic martial arts fight sequences in a film. Before Billy Jack, movies contained at most brief references to martial arts, with fights portrayed by actors who had little training. With Billy Jack, Han introduced authentic hapkido techniques to Western audiences. In its sequel, The Trial of Billy Jack, he received a co-starring part where he spoke about and demonstrated the art, mentioning the art by name for the first time.
Han continued to choreograph fight sequences and bring martial arts to the big screen. In 1977, he played the evil Dr. Klahn in the spoof film, The Kentucky Fried Movie, and in 1980, he appeared as the Karate Master to a group of boys in the action-comedy film, The Little Dragons. In a serious demonstration of pressure-point techniques, Han also arranged the fight scene in which Sean Connery uses one thumb to defeat a burly assailant in the 1988 movie, The Presidio.
Han has been the subject of many magazine and newspaper articles, martial arts magazine cover stories, and was a member of the Black Belt Magazine Hall of Fame in 1978 and the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame in 1999. He was also featured in the A&E documentary, The Martial Arts and the Wesley Snipes-produced Master of the Martial Arts.
In addition to being cited in dozens of martial arts books, he wrote many articles on the Way of martial arts, and also authored the book, Hapkido, The Korean Art of Self-Defense, that was published by Ohara Publications in 1974, which is now in its 23rd printing. He completed a series of ten instructional Hapkido DVDs which are in worldwide distribution.
In 1974, Han founded the International Hapkido Federation. On July 6, 2006, Black Belt Magazine presented the International Hapkido Federation with its 2006 Industry Award for Best Traditional School for its commitment to preserving the legacy of Hapkido. Han's legacy is kept alive by the continued efforts of several of his students: most notably Eric Friske, Danny Cruz and Stephen Cord of Mushin Hapkido, Phillip Turner of Morning Calm Hapkido, Steven Bettencourt and Jim Lerman of Bettencourt's Taekwondo, and Julia Khan of Do Shim Mudo.
Han died at his home in Santa Monica, California, on January 8, 2007. He was buried in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.
Read more about this topic: Han Bong-soo
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