Ho Sung Pak
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ho Sung Pak | |
|---|---|
| Birthdate: | November 8, 1967 |
| Birth location: | Seoul, Korea |
| Birth name: | Ho Sung Pak |
| Height: | 5' 7" (1.70 m) |
| Ethnicity: | Korean |
Ho Sung Pak (born November 8, 1967) is a Korean American film actor, martial artist, action choregrapher, writer, and producer.
Not only did he play as the main villain of the first Mortal Kombat game, Shang Tsung, but he also played the Mortal Kombat champion Liu Kang for the first game and Mortal Kombat II. He was a stunt coordinator for the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze as well as a stunt double for Raphael; he later reprised his role of stunt double in the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.
In 1995, he and fellow MK actors Daniel Pesina, Katalin Zamiar, and Dr. Phillip Ahn, M.D. all appeared in a fighting game produced exclusively for the Atari Jaguar titled Thea Realm Fighters, but it was never released after Atari ceased production on the failed system later that year.
In 2002, he played the leading role in the martial arts movie The Book of Swords. In it he portrayed Lang, an Asian cop who after witnessing the death of his brother during a drugbust gone wrong, leaves town only to come back three years later for revenge. The movie also starred Daniel Pesina and Katalin Zamiar and another MK actor, Richard Divizio. In a nod to his Mortal Kombat alter ego Liu Kang, Pak is shown wearing a red headband during the final part of the movie, while the other three actors are also seen in similar MK clothing/roles throughout the movie.
In 2005, he starred in the ultimately unreleased Lesser of Three Evils (directed by Wayne Kennedy), alongside Sherilyn Fenn and Peter Greene.
During the 1995-1997 show WMAC Masters, his ki-symbol was "Superstar". His younger brother, Ho Young Pak, as well as fellow Mortal Kombat actor Chris Casamassa, also appeared on the show.
[edit] Trivia
- He and fellow MK actor Katalin Zamiar (Kitana/Mileena/Jade) were dating at the time MKII was in arcades. They appeared together in an infomercial for a fitness product called the Slam Man in 2001.
- Rumors suggest Namco's Tekken character, Baek Doo San, may have been based on Ho Sung Pak.
- He also appeared in Uwe Boll's video game to movie title Alone in the Dark. In it, he dies in a very Mortal Kombat style death. He is in the scene leaning down to the floor after entering the abandoned gold mine. A trap door opens below him and he falls to his demise in a spiky pit. He also appeared in another Uwe Boll video game adaptation film, BloodRayne, as a vampire guard during the climactic battle. He also can be seen in Jackie Chan movie, Drunken Master 2 (The Legend Of Drunken Master in US) as one of the main thugs along with Ken Lo, wearing a black tuxedo.
