08/24/2026
The legendary James Lew has left us 😔
We lost a legend.
James Lew – stuntman, martial artist, Emmy Award-winning stunt coordinator, and one of the most quietly formidable men in Hollywood – passed away recently. He was 73.
I first discovered James the same way a lot of us did: watching Big Trouble in Little China and thinking, “who IS that guy?” Then I kept seeing his face in Black Belt and Inside Kung Fu, credit after credit, film after film. The man was everywhere action happened.
So when James came through our school at City Wing Tsun to train stuntmen while working on Luke Cage – the Emmy-winning production he helped put on the map – meeting him was a full-circle moment I’ll never forget.
He was exactly who you’d hope he’d be. Humble. Warm. Not a drop of Hollywood ego. We had real conversations. He’d even text every now and then when something came up – a gig, a project. A genuine connection.
James helped define what martial arts on film could look like. And he did it for over five decades without losing the substance that made him great in the first place.
Rest well, Sifu. The community you helped build will carry it forward.
– Sifu Alex | City Wing Tsun | New York City