Robert Mark Kamen is an American screenwriter who has been writing major motion pictures for over twenty-five years. He is best known as creator and co-creator of the Karate Kid and Transporter franchises, as well as the 2009 action thriller Taken.

Collaboration with Luc Besson[link]

Kamen is a frequent collaborator of French writer, director and producer Luc Besson—his co-creator on The Fifth Element, The Transporter, and Taken. The two first worked together on the Natalie Portman and Jean Reno thriller The Professional; after the success of Fifth Element, Besson invited Kamen to join him in his goal of creating a "mini-studio" in Europe, making “movies that would travel, international movies, you know, action movies."^[1]

Background and education[link]

Kamen grew up in the Bronx borough of New York City.^[2] He received a B.A. from New York University and a Ph.D in American Studies from The University of Pennsylvania.

Personal[link]

Kamen lives in New York, owns a vineyard in Sonoma, and commutes to work in Paris at Besson’s headquarters.^[3]

Filmography[link]

• Taps (1981)
• Split Image (1982)
• The Karate Kid (1984)^[4]
• The Karate Kid, Part II (1986)
• The Karate Kid, Part III (1989)
• The Punisher (producer, rewriter)
• Gladiator (first version but not related to actual 1992 film)
• Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
• The Power of One (1992)
• A Walk in the Clouds (1995)
• The Devil's Own (1997, uncredited rewrite)^[5]
• The Fifth Element (1997)
• Kiss of the Dragon (2001)
• The Transporter (2002)
• Black Sash (2003, TV creator)
• Transporter 2 (2005)
• Bandidas (2006)
• Taken (2008)
• Transporter 3 (2008)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Robert Mark Kamen at the Internet Movie Database
• Writers Guild of America Interview with Kamen

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Sir Robert Mark, GBE, QPM (13 March 1917 – 30 September 2010) was an English police officer who served as Chief Constable of Leicester City Police, and later as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1972 to 1977.

Mark was the first Metropolitan Commissioner to have risen through all the ranks from the lowest to the highest (a route followed by all subsequent Commissioners), although a few predecessors had served as Constables prior to fast-track promotion.

Early life[link]

Mark was born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, a suburb of Manchester, the youngest of five children of a prosperous mantle manufacturer originally from Yorkshire. He was educated at William Hulme's Grammar School, where he was undistinguished academically, but became captain of rugby and head prefect.

Police career begins[link]

When he left school in 1935^[1] he got a job as a carpet salesman, but finding this boring,^[2] in 1937 he joined Manchester City Police as a Constable, much to the dismay of his father, who considered it beneath him and said becoming a policeman was only one step above going to prison.^[2][3] While still a probationer he joined the plain clothes branch, mainly dealing with vice,^[1] and in 1938^[1] he joined Special Branch.

Army service[link]

In 1942 he joined the British Army, trained at Sandhurst, and was commissioned into the Royal Armoured Corps in October 1943.^[4] He initially served with the 108th Regiment, but through the influence of his elder brother James, who worked at the War Office,^[2] he then transferred to the Manchester Regiment in December 1943,^[5] attached to the GHQ Liaison Regiment, known as Phantom, which provided liaison with special forces units. With them, he took part in the Normandy Landings. In 1945 he was promoted Captain and posted to the military government in Germany, where he remained until his demobilisation as a Major in 1947.

Return to Manchester[link]

Returning to Manchester and Special Branch, he was soon promoted Detective Sergeant,^[1] but considered leaving the police^[2] until he received a series of rapid promotions, to Detective Inspector in 1950,^[1] uniformed Chief Inspector in 1952,^[1] Superintendent, and finally Chief Superintendent in charge of the force's administration, still younger than any inspector in the force.^[2] He applied for the post of Assistant Chief Constable of Newcastle upon Tyne, but was unsuccessful and instead enrolled on the senior command course at the National Police College.

Appointed Chief Constable[link]

On 1 January 1957 he was appointed Chief Constable of Leicester. There he instituted many reforms, especially regarding Leicester's traffic problems, including appointing the city's first traffic wardens. He acquired the nickname "Lone Ranger of Leicester".^[3] Following the 1966 escape of the spy George Blake from Wormwood Scrubs, Mark was appointed to the Mountbatten inquiry into prison security. Here he attracted the attention of Chancellor of the Exchequer Roy Jenkins,^[2] and in February 1967 was appointed Assistant Commissioner "D" (Personnel and Training) of the Metropolitan Police,^[6] where his welcome was less than ecstatic from a force that did not like outsiders;^[3] at the end of his first week, he was encouraged by Commissioner Sir Joseph Simpson to apply for the post of Chief Constable of Lancashire.^[1] The following year he was briefly appointed Assistant Commissioner "B" (Traffic).^[1] However, in March 1968, Simpson died in office. Peter Brodie, Assistant Commissioner "C" (Crime), was widely tipped to succeed him, but Home Secretary James Callaghan saw the opportunity to impose government will on the force and offered the job to Mark.^[1] Mark, realising that an outsider would not be accepted at this time, suggested the appointment of Deputy Commissioner Sir John Waldron, with himself succeeding Waldron as Deputy Commissioner.^[1]

CID reform[link]

The Metropolitan Police had recently been rocked by exposure of massive corruption in the Criminal Investigation Department, and Mark, with the famous quote that "a good police force is one that catches more crooks than it employs",^[2] set about attempting to reform it. He changed disciplinary procedures, returned many detective to uniform, made a number of television appearances praising the uniformed branch following student unrest and protests against the Vietnam War, and began to gather around him a group of loyal, ambitious uniformed officers who had not graduated from the old Hendon Police College.^[1] The uniformed branch began to gain precedence and CID was increasingly put under uniformed command. In 1971, with Brodie, an old-school officer who commanded CID, out of the country, Mark formed A10, a special unit established to investigate corruption. Among those rooted out were Commander Kenneth Drury, head of the Flying Squad, and Detective Chief Superintendent Bill Moody, head of the Obscene Publications Squad and ironically also of the Anti-Corruption Squad. Both were jailed, along with several other officers, and nearly 500 more were dismissed or forced to resign.^[1][3] In general, he was supported by the uniformed branch, who were themselves exasperated with CID corruption.^[3]

Appointed Commissioner[link]

Following Waldron's retirement, he was appointed Commissioner on 17 April 1972.^[3][7] Brodie took early retirement the day before and was replaced by Assistant Commissioner "B" Colin Woods, who had never previously served in CID. Mark continued to root out corruption, ably assisted by his Deputy Commissioner, Sir James Starritt. He also had to deal with the increase in IRA terrorism, including the Balcombe Street Siege, and also the Knightsbridge Spaghetti House Siege, taking personal command of both. Although popular with liberals for his stamping out of police corruption, Mark was himself far from a liberal, had no time for anti-establishment demonstrators and such groups as the National Council for Civil Liberties,^[3] and was responsible for the introduction of the Special Patrol Group,^[1] whose paramilitary methods provoked considerable criticism. Mark resigned in 1977 following a public disagreement with Jenkins, then Home Secretary, over the Police Act 1976 and the introduction of an independent police complaints body, which Mark considered would undermine police discipline and effective investigation.^[1][2]

Honours[link]

He was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in the 1965 Birthday Honours,^[8] knighted in the 1973 New Year Honours,^[9] and appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1977 New Year Honours.^[10] He was appointed Knight of the Order of Saint John in 1978.^[11]

Post-retirement activities[link]

Following his resignation, he became a director of the private security consultancy Phoenix Assurance and Control Risks. From 1970 to 1978 he was a visiting fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. From 1974, he appeared in television adverts for Goodyear tyres and his "I'm convinced they're a major contribution to road safety" became a widely used catchphrase. In 1976, Mark travelled to the United States to chair a conference designed to assist the Washington, DC-based Police Foundation in setting up the Police Executive Research Forum, a think tank devoted to training police executives and improving management practices.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

He married Kathleen Mary Leahy in 1941; they had a son and a daughter. She died in 1997. His memoirs, In the Office of Constable, were published in 1978. He also wrote Policing a Perplexed Society, published in 1977.

References[link]

External links[link]

• History & Policy – "Policing the Windrush generation", by James Whitfield states that "Sir Robert Mark was a lone dissenting voice in pointing out that the real reason why so few minority ethnic applicants applied to join the police was because they knew that they would be unwelcome."

Liam Neeson
Neeson at the TIFF premiere of The Other Man, 7 September 2008
Born	Liam John Neeson (1952-06-07) 7 June 1952 (age 60) Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1973–present
Spouse	Natasha Richardson (m. 1994–2009; her death)
Children	2
Relatives	Vanessa Redgrave (mother-in-law) Tony Richardson (deceased father-in-law) Joely Richardson (sister-in-law)

Liam John Neeson,^[1] OBE (born 7 June 1952)^[2] is an Irish actor who has been nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and three Golden Globe Awards. He has starred in a number of notable roles including Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List, Michael Collins in Michael Collins, Peyton Westlake in Darkman, Bryan Mills in Taken, Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars (the film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Alfred Kinsey in Kinsey, Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins, and the voice of Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia film series.

He starred in other notable films such as Excalibur, The Dead Pool, Nell, Rob Roy, Les Misérables, The Haunting, Love Actually, Kingdom of Heaven, Taken, Clash of the Titans, The A-Team, Unknown and The Grey, as well as smaller arthouse films (e.g. Deception, Breakfast on Pluto, Chloe). He was ranked at number 69 on Empire magazine's 100 greatest movie stars of all time in 1997.

He was born in Ballymena, County Antrim and educated at St Patrick's College (now St Patrick's, Dundonald), Ballymena Technical College and Queen's University Belfast. He moved to Dublin after university to further his acting career, joining the renowned Abbey Theatre. In the early 1990s, he moved again to the United States, where the wide acclaim for his performance in Schindler's List led to more high-profile work. He is widowed and lives in New York with his two sons.

Early life[link]

Neeson was born 7 June 1952, in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and is the son of Katherine "Kitty" (née Brown), a cook, and Bernard "Barney" Neeson, a caretaker at Ballymena Boys All Saints Primary School.^[3] He was raised Roman Catholic^[4][5][6] and was called Liam after the local priest.^[7] He was the third of four siblings; he has three sisters, Elizabeth, Bernadette, and Rosaline.^[8] At age nine, Neeson began boxing lessons at the All Saints Youth Club, and later became Ulster amateur senior boxing champion.^[9] At age eleven, Neeson first stepped on stage. His English teacher gave him the lead role in a school play, which he accepted because the girl he was attracted to would be starring.^[10] From then on, he kept acting in school productions for the following years.^[11]

His interest in acting and decision to become an actor was also influenced by minister Ian Paisley, whose church Neeson would sneak into. Neeson has said of Paisley that "He had a magnificent presence and it was incredible to watch this six foot-plus man just Bible-thumping away... It was acting but it was also great acting and stirring too."^[12]

Neeson was enrolled in 1971 as a physics and computer science undergraduate student at Queen's University Belfast in Belfast, Northern Ireland, before leaving to work for the Guinness Brewery.^[13]

He discovered a talent for football at Queens University. He was spotted by Seán Thomas at Bohemian F.C.. There was a club trial in Dublin. He only played one game as a substitute against Shamrock Rovers and was not offered a contract to continue playing.^[14]

Career[link]

1978–1999[link]

After leaving university, Neeson returned to Ballymena where he worked in a variety of casual jobs, from a fork-lift operator at Guinness to a truck driver. He also attended teacher training college in Newcastle for two years before again returning to his home town. In 1976, Neeson joined the Lyric Players' Theatre in Belfast where he performed for two years. He got his first film experience in 1977, playing Jesus Christ and Evangelist in the religious film, Pilgrim's Progress directed by Ken Anderson. Neeson moved to Dublin in 1978 after he was offered a part in a production at the Project Arts Centre. The play was Ron Hutchinson's "Says I, Says He", a drama about The Troubles. He acted in several other Project productions and joined the Abbey Theatre. In 1980, filmmaker John Boorman saw him on stage, acting as Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men, and offered him the part of Sir Gawain in the upcoming Arthurian film, Excalibur. After Excalibur, Neeson moved to London, where he continued working on stage, small budget films and television series. He lived with the actress Helen Mirren at this time, whom he met working on Excalibur.^[15] Between 1982 and 1987, Neeson starred in five films; most notably alongside Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins in 1984's The Bounty and Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons in 1986's The Mission. He also starred as a guest actor in the third season of the television series Miami Vice in 1986.

In 1987, Neeson made a conscious decision to move to Hollywood in order to star in high-profile roles.^[15] That year, he starred alongside Cher and Dennis Quaid in Suspect. The role brought Neeson critical applause, but it was 1990's Darkman that would bring his name to public attention. Although the film was successful, Neeson's following years would not give him the same recognition. In 1993, he joined Ellis Island co-star and future wife Natasha Richardson in the Broadway play Anna Christie. (They also worked together in Nell, released the following year.) He recited the Van Morrison song "Coney Island" on the 1994 Van Morrison tribute album, No Prima Donna: The Songs of Van Morrison. A single was also released with Neeson's version.

Director Steven Spielberg, impressed by his performance in Nell, offered him the coveted role of Oskar Schindler in the film about the Holocaust, Schindler's List.^[16] His critically acclaimed performance later earned him a nomination for a Best Actor Oscar; however, the award went to Tom Hanks for his performance in Philadelphia. Neeson also garnered BAFTA and Golden Globes nominations for Schindler's List. Schindler's List established Neeson as a widely sought-after actor. He later starred in period pieces Rob Roy (1995) and Michael Collins (1996), the latter earning him another Golden Globe nomination and a win for Best Starring Role at the Venice Film Festival. Neeson went on to star as Jean Valjean in the 1998 adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables and in The Haunting (1999) as Dr. David Marrow.

[edit] Star Wars

In 1999, Neeson starred as Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, in director George Lucas' Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. As it was the first Star Wars film to be released in over sixteen years, it was surrounded by a large amount of anticipation from the media. Neeson's connection to the Star Wars films started in the Crown Bar, Belfast. Neeson stated to Ricki Lake, "I probably wouldn't have taken the role if it wasn't for the advice of Peter King in the Crown during a Lyric reunion." The Phantom Menace was an enormous box-office success and remains the most financially successful Star Wars film unadjusted for inflation.^[17] Qui-Gon's voice, provided by Neeson, would later be heard during a brief scene in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002). Qui-Gon was supposed to make an appearance in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) as a Force Ghost, and Neeson had hinted at involvement.^[18] However, he was ultimately unable to appear due to a motorcycle injury, and his character is only mentioned in the film.^[19] In 2011, he reappeared as the voice of Qui-Gon in the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

2001–present[link]

Neeson narrated the 2001 documentaries Journey Into Amazing Caves and The Endurance: Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure. After being nominated for a Tony Award for his role opposite Laura Linney in The Crucible, Neeson teamed up with Harrison Ford in Kathryn Bigelow's submarine thriller K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) as Captain Mikhail Polenin and appeared in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (with Leonardo DiCaprio, Brendan Gleeson, Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis). He also played a recently widowed writer in Richard Curtis' ensemble comedy Love Actually (2003).^[20] His role as Alfred Kinsey in Kinsey again put Neeson up for nomination for a Golden Globe Award but lost to Leonardo DiCaprio for The Aviator.

In 2004, Neeson hosted an episode of the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live. He starred as a redneck trucker, Marlon Weaver, in an "Appalachian Emergency Room" sketch and a hippie in a one-off sketch about two stoners (the other played by Amy Poehler) who attempt to borrow a police dog in order to find their lost stash of marijuana. Despite vowing not to play any characters who were Irish stereotypes, Neeson did play a stereotypically Irish man named Lorcan McArdle in the home makeover show parody "You Call This A House, Do Ya?"^[21] In 2005, Neeson played Godfrey of Ibelin in Ridley Scott's epic adventure Kingdom of Heaven, Ra's al Ghul, one of the main villains in Batman Begins, and as Father Bernard in Neil Jordan's adaptation of Patrick McCabe's novel, Breakfast on Pluto.

In 2005, he voiced the role of a kindly priest on The Simpsons, who (briefly) converted Bart and Homer to Catholicism.^[22] That same year, he gave his voice to the lion Aslan in the blockbuster fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.^[23] A year later, he narrated the documentary Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity. Neeson starred in the 2008 hit Taken, which brought his image back into the public eye and resulted in his casting in many more mainstream Hollywood movies. In 2007, he starred in the American Civil War epic Seraphim Falls.

Neeson talking to Ralph Fiennes at the Madison Square Garden U2 concert, 1 October 2005

Neeson's voice is featured in the video game Fallout 3 as the main character's father, James.^[24] The executive producer of the game, Todd Howard, said "This role was written with Liam in mind, and provides the dramatic tone for the entire game".^[25] Fallout 3, the third game in the Fallout series, has been extremely well received by critics and shipped 4.7 million copies by the end of 2008, the year it was released.^[26]

In the director's commentary of the 2007 Transformers DVD, Michael Bay said that he had told the animators to seek inspiration from Neeson in creating Optimus Prime's body language. Neeson appeared as Alistair Little in the BBC Northern Ireland/Big Fish Films television drama Five Minutes of Heaven, which tells the true story of a young Protestant man convicted of murdering a Catholic boy during The Troubles.^[27]

He starred in the action film Taken in 2008, a French produced film also starring Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace. It is based on a script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen and was directed by Pierre Morel. Neeson plays a retired Central Intelligence Agency operative from their elite Special Activities Division who sets about tracking down his teenage daughter after she is kidnapped for sexual slavery while travelling in Europe. Taken was a huge worldwide box office hit, grossing $223,882,658 worldwide and making almost $200,000,000 more than its initial budget. He again gave his voice to Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008).^[28]

Neeson has wrapped filming the psychological thriller After.Life with Christina Ricci and Justin Long.^[29] He also provided a voice for Hayao Miyazaki's anime film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, which received an August 2009 release.^[30]

In 2010, Neeson played Zeus in the remake of the 1981 film, Clash of the Titans. The film went on becoming a huge box office hit and grossing $475 million worldwide.^[31]

Neeson also starred in the erotic thriller Chloe, theatrically released by Sony Pictures Classics on 26 March 2010. Chloe had enjoyed commercial success and became director Atom Egoyan's biggest money maker ever.^[32] Later the same year, he played John "Hannibal" Smith in the spin-off movie from the TV series The A-Team.^[33][34]

In 2010, Neeson voiced the character Aslan again in the sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In late 2010, Neeson stated, "Aslan symbolises a Christlike figure, but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries"; this disappointed many fans of the series, who felt that he was "destroying the author's legacy to be politically correct".^[35][36]

In 2011, Neeson starred in Unknown, a German-British-American co-production of a French book, it was filmed in Berlin in early 2010. It has been compared to Taken, which was set in Paris. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film enjoyed box office success in the United States. It was largely funded by Dark Castle entertainment with smaller amounts coming from the Berlin film agency.

He was set to reunite with director Steven Spielberg and star as Abraham Lincoln in the film based on the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin.^[37][37] In preparation for the role, Neeson visited Washington, D.C., Springfield, Illinois where Lincoln lived prior to being elected, and read Lincoln's personal letters.^[38] He was later replaced in the role by Daniel Day-Lewis.

Director Lee Daniels has confirmed that Neeson will play former U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson in Daniels' developing film Selma, which is about Martin Luther King, Jr., Johnson, and the civil rights marches.^[39]

Neeson also starred as Ben Ryan in the drama Before and After alongside Meryl Streep. This film was about how a family dealt with the aftereffects of a murder their son was accused of committing. It was announced in July 2010 that Neeson would guest-star on the new Showtime series The Big C.^[40] In 2011, he played himself, in BBC2's series Life's Too Short, starring Warwick Davis. It was announced that Liam Neeson would reprise his role as Ra's Al Ghul for the film: The Dark Knight Rises. He narrated the first trailer for the film that was released in July 2011.

Personal life[link]

Neeson was married to actress Natasha Richardson from 3 July 1994, until her death on 18 March 2009, when she suffered a severe head injury in a skiing accident at the Mont Tremblant Resort, in Quebec. Richardson and Neeson had two sons: Michael and Daniel. Neeson lives in Millbrook, New York. In August 2004 Neeson and his wife purchased an additional 16 acres next to their estate.^[41][42]

A heavy smoker earlier in his career, Neeson has since quit smoking. When he took the role of Hannibal for the 2010 film adaptation of The A-Team, Neeson had reservations about smoking cigars (which is a signature trait of the Hannibal character) in the film due to being an ex-smoker, but agreed to keep that personality trait of Hannibal intact for the film.^[43] In August 2009, Neeson stated on ABC's Good Morning America that he had been naturalised as a United States citizen.^[44]

Neeson is a fan of Liverpool F.C.^[45]

In March 2011, Neeson was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.^[46]

A January 2012 article in The Sun indicated that Neeson has thought of leaving Catholicism and converting to Islam. This reportedly followed a period of filming in Istanbul, Turkey and hearing the call to prayer.^[47]

Honours and awards[link]

Neeson was offered the 'Freedom of the Town of Ballymena' by Ballymena Borough Council, but because of objections made by members of the Democratic Unionist Party regarding his comments that he had felt like a 'second-class citizen' growing up as a Catholic in the town, he declined the award, citing tensions.^[48] Neeson continues to practice the Catholic faith and has raised his children as Catholics. He has also expressed admiration for The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola.^[49]

He was appointed as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in her 1999 New Year Honours.^[50] The American Ireland Fund honoured Neeson with their Performing Arts Award for the great distinction he has brought to Ireland at their 2008 Dinner Gala in New York.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Liam Neeson

• ITV Local Interview at premiere of Taken
• Liam Neeson at the Internet Movie Database
• Liam Neeson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Liam Neeson at AllRovi
• Liam Neeson at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• The American Ireland Fund Performing Arts Award 2008
• Liam Neeson Interview for "The A-Team"
• Liam Neeson is Today's Greatest Action Hero

Keisuke Miyagi (宮城健介, Miyagi Keisuke^?) also known as Mr. Miyagi, is a fictional karate master, played by Japanese-American actor Pat Morita, who mentors the characters Daniel LaRusso and Julie Pierce in the Karate Kid films. Morita earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance in the first film.^[2]

Robert Mark Kamen stated that Mr. Miyagi was named after Chōjun Miyagi, the founder of Goju Ryu Karate-Do.^[3]

Fictional biography[link]

An ethnic Okinawan immigrant to the United States, Keisuke Miyagi learned karate originally from his father, who had been a fisherman. Miyagi initially had a job working for the father of his best friend, Sato, who was also taught karate by Miyagi's father. When Miyagi fell in love with a young woman named Yukie, who was arranged to marry Sato, Sato felt dishonored by this, and challenged Miyagi to a fight to the death. To avoid the fight, Miyagi left Okinawa and emigrated to the United States.^[4]

After leaving Los Angeles he attended the University of California Santa Barbara, was interned in the Manzanar Japanese internment camp in California during World War II. During this time, Miyagi joined the U.S. Army and received the Medal of Honor^[5] (he was a member of the real and much-storied 442nd Infantry Regiment, in fact the most highly decorated regiment in the history of the United States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of Honor recipients). He also taught his former Army commanding officer, Lt. Pierce.^[6] During his service, Mrs. Miyagi and their son died in the Manzanar camp due to complications during childbirth, a loss that has been haunting him for decades.^[7]

What Miyagi did in the interim between the war and the first movie is not revealed in much detail. At the start of the first movie, he works as a maintenance man in Daniel's apartment building.^[5]

In 1985, Miyagi learns his father is dying, and returns to Okinawa, where he is reunited with Yukie. Sato relentlessly tries to goad Miyagi into a fight, but after Miyagi saves Sato from death during a typhoon, Sato renounces his hate and the two make peace.^[4]

In the third movie, he and Daniel begin a business of growing bonsai trees.^[8]

Karate style[link]

Mr. Miyagi has a deep philosophical knowledge of life and has extraordinary martial arts skill. In the second film, Mr. Miyagi explains that he is descended from Shimpo Miyagi, who was very fond of both fishing and sake. One day in 1625 while fishing and very drunk, he passed out on his fishing boat off the coast of Okinawa and ended up on the coast of China. Ten years later, Shimpo returned to Okinawa with his wife, his two kids, and the secret of Miyagi family karate.

2010 remake[link]

In the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid, the custodian-turned-sensei ("sifu" in Chinese martial arts training) is a Chinese man named Mr. Han (portrayed by Jackie Chan). Like Miyagi, Han is quirky, yet humble and kind, though somewhat less friendly and more conflicted. He is a maintenance man in Beijing's Beverly Hills Luxury Apartment complex, where Dre Parker lives. Unlike Miyagi, Han is a practitioner of kung fu who uses fire cupping in lieu of Miyagi's pain suppression technique, and elements of his backstory differ from Miyagi's, such as the circumstances surrounding his wife's and son's death.^[9][10]

In this version, Han's wife was an amateur singer named Zhang, and their 10-year-old son was named Gong Gong. While driving on a steep hill during a rainstorm, Han was distracted by an argument with his wife, and he crashed, killing her and Gong Gong. He becomes a recluse following their deaths, and he copes with the loss by annually repairing his car and dismantling it every June 8, the anniversary of their death. Like Miyagi to Daniel, Han acts as a father figure to Dre, and he trains him to win the kung fu "Tournament of Champions."

References[link]