Stunt Legend James Lew Dies at 73
James Lew, a stuntman and stunt coordinator whose career spanned five decades and some of the biggest action films ever made, has died at 73. His wife, Jordana Potter, announced the death; no cause was given. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the news on 24 August 2026. The Hollywood Reporter
Born on 6 September 1952 and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Lew began martial arts training at 14, at a school that combined taekwondo and Tang Soo Do. That foundation carried him into the film industry while he was still a teenager. He played a monk and performed stunts on a 1974 episode of ABC's Kung Fu, and soon landed roles in John Cassavetes' The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) and the Hong Kong production The Young Dragon (1979).
Lew's partnership with director John Carpenter was a defining stretch. He served as stunt coordinator on Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and performed stunts on They Live (1988) and Escape From L.A. (1996). He appeared in all three Rush Hour films (1998, 2001, 2007) and featured in Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), the Jim Abrahams-directed spoof opposite Charlie Sheen's Topper Harley.
The list of films on which Lew performed stunts reads like a tour of late-20th-century action cinema. Black Rain (1989), Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991), Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), The Last Samurai (2003), Tropic Thunder (2008), Star Trek (2009), Inception (2010), Olympus Has Fallen (2013) and Avengers: Endgame (2019) all carry his name in the credits. As an actor, he played a martial arts instructor in Action Jackson (1988) and a killer in Red Sun Rising (1994), with further appearances in Timecop (1994), Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) and Traffic (2000).
Television kept him just as busy. Lew turned up on T.J. Hooker, The Fall Guy, The A-Team, Falcon Crest, Murder, She Wrote, Roseanne, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Walker, Texas Ranger, Alias and Westworld.
In 2017, Lew won an Emmy for outstanding stunt coordination for a drama series, limited series or movie, for his work on the Netflix series Luke Cage — the streaming platform's adaptation of the Marvel comic about a bulletproof hero in Harlem. He was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame in 2024.
Lew also wrote and directed the mockumentary 18 Fingers of Death! (2006) and co-directed the parody Made in Chinatown (2021), which featured Vincent Pastore.
For a sense of what one career could mean to an entire genre: the fight scenes and falls that audiences absorbed for nearly half a century — from a Carpenter cult classic to the final battle of the Avengers — were, in many cases, Lew's work behind the camera or in front of it. He was 73.
