How did Don "The Dragon" Wilson start his Film Career? / World's Greatest Kickboxer enters Hollywood
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- In my interview with kickboxing legend Don "The Dragon" Wilson, we discuss how he broke into Hollywood and started his movie career.
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Make sure to watch "The REAL Reason Why Don "The Dragon" Wilson never became an A-List Hollywood Star!" here: ua-cam.com/video/smZ_pVzm2Lk/v-deo.html
I hope his movies make it to Blu ray some day you can't find his movies anywhere
Don I disagree with many in the community who say you lack the it factor. You’re a very engaging man full of contagious energy. I can only Imagine how hard it was for a asian American to make it in Hollywood. Your still the man and accomplishments can never be taking from you.
I still say Bloodfist 3 is one of Wilson’s best films and underrated. IMO, he showed some pretty good acting chops and his chemistry with the legendary Richard Roundtree was awesome. Good writing and plot.
*CORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRN on the mf'nnnnnnnnnnn COB !!!!*
Don the Dragon! The guy is a legend!
I use to watch that one movie with him and that kid. 😆 that's what remember fron Don.
It's funny I remember that, walking into the video store and seeing the Martial arts section.
I knew my video store guy by name, and they knew me. And the MA section was my go-to area.
Sho, is still around, now that would be an interview.
Great interview with one of the heroes of my youth Don "The Dragon" Wilson! Back when I first took and became obsessed with martial arts, I watched all of his movies and still own his entire Bloodfist and Ring of Fire series on DVD. It takes two to tango, so credit to Viking Samurai for getting The Dragon to open up and to The Dragon for being such an articulate storyteller! 🐉👊
Like all of his movies inspiring 🤩 lol
A true kickboxing legend. And I love the bloodfist film series
No mention for New York Chinatown he made in 1983?
Great interview. There's nothing more 90s than watching a Don Wilson movie.
Люблю Дракона Уилсона. Некоторые фильмы были прикольные.
Like blood👊 movie
First time I seen Don Wilson was when I watched Bloodfist at 14. I've met Don a few times and every time I have he's always been a friendly classy person. Don is definitely a true champion !
I’m only 42 but I wish I had Don’s energy. Guy’s a machine.
So much I remember from my childhood Billy Blanks. I saw a couple of his movies. That movie with Chuck Norris and that kid that passed away RIP.
I met Don the Dragon Wilson back in 2007 at the Semi Show in London. Great guy.
Great video
Onelove
Now that's what I'm talking about now this is a man I can 💯 % support he's a legitimate bad ass! I always rented his movies on VHS back in the day my Aunt was a manager at a video store here in Fresno California and like he was describing the Martial arts section in the store that's where I headed every time and the first one I seen was Bloodfist then I was hooked after that! Then I learned about his background after that by asking all my Taekwondo instructors and they gave me a lot of information about his fight records and everything and his specialty hook kick that would just knock guys out so I started practicing it like crazy so I could use in tournaments and oh man it worked like a charm lol Thanks Viking Samurai and a huge thanks to one of my idols Don The Dragon Wilson!! 🥋🙏
I might’ve mentioned it before, and Don reminded me, it would be fantastic if you could get Olivier Gruner on sometime. I really enjoyed his movies, and his Savate was fantastic.
Don " The Dragon " Wilson is a true legend. For an independent filmmaker, martial artist and actor from Africa this is a great interview.
Ring of Fire 2 was my favorite film of him.
Hello, Viking Samurai. Don "The Dragon" Wilson is a great Martial Artist. He seems very nice, down to Earth, I would love to have a conversation with him. I may never meet him, but I'm a fan of him and his work. I learned some things about Don, watching this particular interview. Please, keep these coming.
TERRANCE OUT
Don still looks good for his age.
Great interview…definitely one of the legends in kickboxing!
Don is a legend. How much would I wanted that Bloodfist series, Daniels, Rothrock, blanks and more, I love all that martial arts B movies.
Let's hope it still happens, great interview 👍
Me too
I miss the 80s. Nowadays no studio executive would bet on an athlete to smash the box-office. It was a magical time.
Don seems like a good dude.
It's nice to hear Don Wilson.
Here, in France, Bloodfist 1 et 2 were released only ten years ago.
But we appreciate him.
Ever weekend I would rent he movie at video store
Great martial artist and champ and really nice guy too. Love his movies as a kid watched thm with my dad. Glad ur channel is goin from strength to strength ur a great guy samurai! Keep thm coming dude.
I always liked the "Ring of Fire" movies from Don Wilson. I enjoyed watching Wilson's and other action MARTIAL ARTS movie star's(BILL BLANKS, JEFF WINCOTT, LARENZO LAMAS, GARY DANIELS, etc...)on Cinemax back in the 90's.
Great person!!!! Hopefully this is s start of a long line of videos that are not with or about Frank Dux or MJ White, but just paying time and homage to the (sometimes lesser known) best of the best
Great Interview, I was waiting for this interview with one of my favorite Kickboxer of all times. I met him and Cynthia Rothrock and it was Awesome. Thanks for posting my friend.
Don The Dragon is a real dude and a real martial artist. Sho Kosugi is one of my favorite martial artist of all time. Sho Kosugi was one the only asian actor that was not from America that was in America flims.
Amazing, can't wait for part 2 👌
Glad you got Don on the show! He's a good dude
The Dragon is a class Act!
Don is a great full contact fighter, record wise one of the best of all time! Though in movies he never looked that great in terms of fight scenes, though who cares he made a lot of movies and enjoyed doing that. Being a great ring fighter doesn't necessarily always translate to being a great on screen fighter.
Agree. I think the ring doesn't really look that good on film. Van Damme's helicopter kick would never land in the real world but look amazing on screen. Seagals Aikido would never work, but looked great flipping stuntmen around like rag dolls. Don "The Dragon" looked on screen like he could really mess you up but just didn't have the "wow" factor for me as his moves were short and to the point, just like in the ring.
Fantastic interviews and work overall David ….💯👊
Great interview, Don is a cool dude.
Bloodfist 1 & 2 are classics
The Bloodfist franchise and Ring of Fire trilogy and all of the Dragons other movies really needs to get released on Blu ray in HD in Widescreen 💪💪
Only few true martial arts actors like Scott Adkins are left
@Paul smith: I agree, after Viking Samurai did his video series about the top five 1990's martial artists that were not Van Damme or Seagal I felt inspired to compose a list of martial artists turned actors who could have been household names had they been given the right opportunities. Just saw The Martial Arts Kid (2015) starring Don Wilson and Cynthia Rothrock and I quite enjoyed seeing real martial artists fight on film for a change. Looking forward to the squeal when it comes out.
Don The Dragon was a beast back than! He's good fighter. Viking Samurai, you should try and do a video about Jet Li. He doesn't get enough credit for his Kung Fu.
Don Wilson is one of the coolest martial arts movie stars of all time. He's just a stand-up guy and a class act all the way. He's one of the few that I hold in a level of respect close to Chuck Norris' level.
@Matrix Cobretti why was don labeled World champion, he was lightweight champion
@@paulsmith9192 He wasn't a Lightweight, he was a Light Heavyweight.
@Matrix Cobretti but he still wasn't world champion. he never was heavyweight champion.they should of said world lightweight champion
@@paulsmith9192 Lightweight and Light Heavyweight are two different divisions. Light Heavyweight falls within the Heavyweight division. He was the Light Heavyweight world champion.
@Matrix Cobretti so if it falls into the heavyweight divis,why didn't he and Benny ever square off I wondered? I'm sure Benny would of lost weight or don gain weight to fight each other
Great Interview!! Don Wilson is a true Gentleman and Legend.
How about Phillip Rhee? Best of the best baby!!! Best of the best 2 is a fav
Awesome 👏🏻💥👊🏻🙌🏻🥋
Thanks for this interview with Don Wilson!
Great stuff. Hope we see him talking about Van Damme - as the video with him five months ago ended where he was saying that Van Damme revived martial arts in films.
Amazing !
Been waiting for this one!
Damn, what a great guy! And what a a great energy! Awesome interview VS, I hope there will be more. Thanks..
Don is a legend but also his own biggest fan
Great interview as always ❤
very good video and speaking of the Bloodfist films i have them all on DVD and hopefully one day they get a blu-eay treatment.
nice video..thanks
I got the same photo from Don Wilson that same convention we went to.
...was Seagal there?? I want him!!!!
@@robd1329 No. There was lots of Martial Arts legends there though. I met Don Wilson, Bill Wallace and Cynthia Rothrock. I missed Michael Jai White, unfortunately. Benny Urquidz had to cancel, which sucked because I wanted to meet him most. But the three I met were so nice, I left very happy.
Viking Samurai had a table and was extremely cool and so was his good friend that attended with him.
HELL YES!
Kevin Costner’s golfing movie was called tin cup
I really like don! I feel he could of been much bigger in the movies too.
That will actually be addressed in the next part.
@@VikingSamurai awesome! he definitely had the Charisma and work ethic. Your interviews are the best!
Bloodfist “A gathering of the most awesome human weapons”! Rob Kaman is in it!And If Kaman in is it, that’s worth the price of admission alone. I’m going to find it and add it to my UA-cam video playlist. He’s the unknown actor but an extremely popular kickboxing champion like Don Wilson.
The Martial Arts Sensation, dude tell me you didn't remember. But this was actually one of the tag lines from Bloodsport starring "International Martial Arts Sensation Jean Claude Van Damme."
Exactly!
Awesome content as usual! Nice to see you got to meet him in person too (btw, the shirt, top notch). Never heard that "martial arts sensation" stuff though lol
"Martial arts sensation" is how they marketed and described Van Damme for Bloodsport.
@@VikingSamurai Yeah I know brother, just joking. It would be criminal not to know 🤙
Didn't Jason stathem do martial arts before movies? I know he use to swim and I could of swore martial arts too.
Yes he's a Shotokan black belt before becoming an actor
Marek Piotrowski kicked his ass god but Don is badass ofcourse in the ring couse his movie fights is awful.He should learn from JCVD back in the days.
How many parts?I like when we know how many parts the interviews will be
Not sure yet, but quite a few.
Chuck Norris helped him so did bill Wallace They respected him
Was the series connected to bloodfist 1 and 2
I just looked up BloodFist and there’s 7 of them, 7.
What’s your favorite Don Wilson film?
@Moe Howard bloodfight franchise, red run rising, blackbelt and many more
@@paulsmith9192 Bloodfight one and two are enjoyable. ‘Black Belt’ wasn’t great, but fun.
@Moe Howard I loved blackbelt.remember we don't watch these movies for story.but its all subjective
@@paulsmith9192 My mom had just gotten back into Aikido after a few year hiatus. She was working at a video store and saw the film ‘Black Belt’ had just arrived and decided to get it and watched it with me.
Well, me being 10 years old at the time and her being a self admitted prude (though she didn’t mind me watching R rated films because my sister and I were well behaved), she HATED that movie. Despite that, Don Wilson left an impression on us.
My top 5 would probably be:
1. Ring of Fire
2. Black Belt
3. Bloodfist IV: Die Trying
4. Red Sun Rising
5. Virtual Combat
Underrated. Don should have been bigger. Typical plastic Hollywood...
@Sixgorillionshekelswindler Shlomo low budget. Get what u pay for
@Viking Samurai did u ever see that new jcvd clip of him filming bts fight with a guy named Ramez?idk if was for movie or commercial? Its on UA-cam
Ya, not sure what it was for either.
@Viking Samurai maybe u should post it and show people who don't know about it
Bloodsport-Bloodfist
yep now martial arts movies today are just called,action movies
I don’t care if Don The Dragon Wilson never made any big budget Hollywood movies most of his movies by PM ENTERTAINMENT and NEW CONCORD were fucking excellent I mean non stop action, endless fight scenes and he was an Asian leading man in all his movies. Bruce Lee would be proud and not just him Cynthia Rothrock, Jeff Wincott, Jeff Speakman, Gary Daniels, Michael Worth, Lorenzo Lamas and so many others.
No offense but don Wilson is not a good movie fighter but a better real fighter. his fighting choreography has no charm or entertaining. Benny the jet is the best at doing both and he was a kickboxer too
When was this interview?
Actually late last year, trying to get caught up!
@Viking Samurai oh.why not get caught up and finish all ur past interviews? be easier to focus on one interview at a time
@2:20 I have to correct Don Wilson there. Jason Statham is not an actor first. Statham never had any kind of acting when he started Martial Art. He started Martial Art at age 19, not acting. He then became a Professional athlete, as a professional Diver. He completed on every diving competition in the world, not acting auditions. He also never stopped his Martial Art training all those years. So NO, Statham is not an actor first Don. Getting into a movie was by sheer chance of acquaintance
Shame don probably didn't make much money with all these movies.he definitely needed a series like Chuck had with walker texas ranger
He still made millions
@Viking Samurai yeah.just never got that big blockbuster payday.sad u get these fake martial artist making tons of money and a real ones like don and Gary Daniels should be making the big money
I wonder if Don the Dragon Wilson could have knocked out Mark Coleman just like Maurice Smith knocked him out in the UFC, And become a UFC champion. Mark Coleman was a beast. A scary dude no doubt about it, not a kickboxer, but he had a great left hook (single direct attack ((JKD))
Speaking of Gary Daniels, he is an amazing actor. I’ve always thought he could’ve been a lead in a Detective series or something. Unfortunately I think like a lot of talent out there he got pigeon holed into one genre but he can do it all. Viking, your mission, should you choose to accept it is to get Gary Daniels on the program.
I always thought that it was his acting ability. Gary did "OPEN THE DOOR" for actors Ray Park, Jason Stafen, and Scott Adkins.
@@game9848 for Ray Park, no way? I love those old school guys. My fave I think is Steve Reeves. I haven’t seen a Ray Park film yet. I like Gary Daniel’s. He made me see a side of Bruce Lee I never really thought about; Bruce Lee took a lot from Lao Tzu and Buddhism which is what the Samurai/Ronin Shinobui/ninja did. I’m Christian, I don’t believe in that. I believe in the armor of God. Don Wilson was the greater fighter in his exhibition with Gary Daniels. He also defeated future ufc champion Maurice smith who beat Michael McDonald a K-1 legend, and Legend Dennis Alexio. I wonder how The Dragon would have done against Rob Kaman or Rick Roufus, or the other Dragons? He’s a great great kickboxer no doubt about it.
@@TheRealTomahawk they might have met at Wushu competitions in Europe. Gary could never do an American accent. It was interesting to see Gary Daniels fight against Jason Statham in Expendables #1. So much respect to Silvester Stallone for getting the British MARTIAL ARTS action star's in his Expendable movies.
The main benifit of being a A list action guy is bigger money, and more expousure and that is about it B action movies and asian action martial arts are better then hollywood studio movies the majority of the time anyway so doing B movies is great.
I think that Benny Urquidez had a bigger impact on kickboxing than Don Wilson and he would have beaten Don Wilson in a fight, I guess. Therefore Urquidez was the greatest. I think Don Wilson would be the first to admit that.
That’s possible, but Don Wilson was in a heavier weight class.
@Moe Howard I always wondered why they didn't fight
@@paulsmith9192 Maybe different weight classes. Benny was much smaller than Don.
I have huge respect for both Benny and Don Wilson. Both outstanding martial artists, both men of honor, both are very well rounded and would have been MMA champions. Benny repping Kenpo Karate and Don repping Gongfu.
Bruce Lee was the 1st Dragon
Don Wilson is the 2nd Dragon
Lyoto Machida is the 3rd Dragon
who was the 4th Dragon?
Don is a legend but world's greatest kickboxers are from Holland and Suriname
To bad Don it's a Major star of The Expendables 4.
I like Don he's a nice guy but I think his fight scenes are awful
seriously i must say why should i see now that Movies if You self say the Technics be not even real and im an Martial Arts Master myself and i know that Films like Bloodsport be absolutely Bullshit
I hate him 👎🏼🤮
Didn't know Don had a degree in electrical engineering. Wow! Dude"s very talented indeed!