Jeff Speakman

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Jeff Speakman is an American actor and an accomplished martial artist in the art of kenpo.

[edit] Career

Jeff Speakman was born on November 8, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois. He was a springboard diver in high school and achieved All-American status. He broke several records and never had a coach. His high school grades did not allow him a scholarship, so he had to work for his tuition to get into college. He graduated from Missouri Southern State College with a degree in psychology and a minor in biology six years after graduating high school.

He has said that the television show Kung Fu got him interested in martial arts, and spent years training in American Kenpo under his principal instructor, Larry Tatum, as well as under Ed Parker, the founder of the system. He received his 1st degree black belt in American Kenpo in 1984. He has subsequently obtained a sixth-degree rank in kenpo with other instructors, and also currently holds a 7th-degree black belt in the Gojo-Ryu Karate style which he began to study under Grandmaster Lou Angel starting in 1978.

He started acting in 1988 and became an action movie star in 1991 with the release of The Perfect Weapon, which still features the best-known application of kenpo techniques and principles in popular film.

He holds training camps (Jeff Speakman International Kenpo Camp) for American kenpo and still acts in minor action movies. He was inducted into the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame in 1994.