Gary Edward Daniels (born 9 May 1963) is an English actor, producer, martial artist, fight coordinator and former world light heavyweight kickboxing champion.
Daniels is also an action film leading man, starting with Final Reprisal (1988) and The Secret of King Mahis Island (1988).
He followed up with Ring of Fire (1991), Capital Punishment (1991), American Streetfighter (1992), Deadly Target (1994), Fist of the North Star (1995), Bloodmoon (1996), Recoil (1997), Spoiler (1998), Misfire (2014), and Skin Traffik (2015).
He also plays supporting roles; some of these credits include City Hunter (1993), The Legend of Bruce Lee (2008), Tekken, (2009), The Expendables (2010), I Am Vengeance (2018), and Kung Fu (2021), etc.
[citation needed] Daniels said that at the age of eight he was inspired to learn martial arts after seeing the trailer of the Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon.
Following this, Daniels said he joined a kung-fu school for three to four years, after he made the switch to taekwondo where he received a black belt in his mid-teens.
[citation needed] Daniels began kickboxing at the age of seventeen under the tutelage of former British Army boxing champion Mickey Byrne.
[citation needed] By the late 1980s, Daniels moved to California and began practicing Muay Thai at Benny Urquidez's Jet Center and Yuki Horiuchi's Piston Kickboxing Gym.
[citation needed] In 1988, Daniels starred in the action films Final Reprisal, and The Secret of King Mahis Island.
He thinks it played to his advantage because the filmmakers edited in parallel a scene of him training and showing his physical prowess to introduce his character.
[21] In the mid-to-late 1990s, Daniels found a niche as lead actor in many of PM Entertainment's action movies, including 1995's Rage,[22] 1996's Riot[23] and 1998's Recoil.
[31] In 1999, Daniels acted in an episode of the television show Sons of Thunder,[32] and the film Delta Force One: The Lost Patrol.
[54][additional citation(s) needed] In 2012, Daniels acted in The Encounter: Paradise Lost,[55] The Mark,[56] and Santa's Summer House.
Daniels studied Muay Thai, kickboxing, taekwondo, boxing, ninjutsu, judo, aikido, karate, wing chun, and Northern Shaolin kung fu.