| Hector Echavarria | |
|---|---|
| Born | Héctor E. Echavarría December 6, 1969 Corrientes, Argentina |
| Occupation | Actor, Director, Producer |
Héctor Echavarría (b. December 6, 1969) is an Argentine-born kickboxer, martial arts master, fitness guru, filmmaker, and actor.[1] Apart from being a kickboxer World Champion for many years, he also has had a long television and film career in his native Argentina. Today Hector continues his film career in the United States.[2]
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By the age of six, he was training in Judo and Jiu Jitsu under Mayamoto of the Kodokan. As a young teenager he was learning Karate, Kung Fu, and Tae Kwon Do.
When he went to the United States he trained and thrived under the guidance of Grand Master Robert Trias. Eventually, Ed Parker, who was Elvis Presley's bodyguard and the man who put Bruce Lee in movies, discovered Echavarria, who was known for having showmanship in the ring.[3]
Echavarria began his martial arts training at age 4 and his competitive martial arts career at the age of 14 in his native country of Argentina.[4]
Echavarria was chosen Full Contact Fighter of the Year by the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame.[5] He also was chosen to represent and be the leader of the International Karate and Kickboxing Association and Joe Corley's Professional Karate Association for all Latin America. Hector has appeared in more than 20 martial arts and fitness magazine covers, including Blackbelt, which named Hector "The Next Martial Arts Movie Star", Inside Karate, Men's Fitness, and Martial Arts Illustrated.
He has given more than one hundred kickboxing exhibitions around the world, some in which he sparred with kickboxing champion of the world, Bill Wallace. Echavarria has also given numerous demonstrations with celebrities including the Bee Gees, Philip Michael Thomas, and Richard Simmons.
Echavarria has personally trained and helped achieve higher levels of fitness and health to other martial artits, professional sports athletes and celebrities, including Kendra Wilkinson of Playboy Superstars and "The Girls Next Door"), former three time World Boxing Champion Macho Camacho, and professional NFL kicker for the New England Patriots, Super Bowl winner Al Del Greco, and mixed martial arts champions such as Quinton Jackson, Cheik Kongo, and many others .
Hector has created his own unique home training fitness system that helped him achieve maximum ultimate results for his friends and clients called Ultimate System.
While looking for a place in Miami to open a gym, Hector literally bumped into Miami Vice Publicist Carole Myers, who asked him if he wanted to become an actor. She obtained a television audition for him, and Hector appeared in the 1988 season premiere of Miami Vice, Down for the Count. A few years later, an Argentine producer saw Echavarria in a television demonstration and cast him in the action film Los Extermineitors. This film and its two sequels became the highest grossing winter release movies in South America.[6] Hector played a main character in the Argentine action comedy television series Brigada Cola along with fellow Los Extermineitors cast member and comedian Guillermo Francella, which ran in South America, Europe, and the Middle East from 1992 to 1997.
Among many other features, Echavarria produced the horror flick Lake Dead, with theatrical distribution through After Dark Films. Later on, Hector produced and starred in Confessions of a Pit Fighter, distributed by Lionsgate. In 2008, he wrote, directed and starred as Diego Carter in the film Never Surrender,[7] also distributed by Lionsgate. Hector has another film completed as director and star to be released in 2012: Duel of Legends.
On April 2009, Echavarria filmed a feature called Death Warrior[8] in Toronto, co-starring Nick Mancuso of Under Siege and Rapid Fire. Death Warrior was produced by Sean Buckley of Buck Productions and directed by Bill Corcoran and will be distributed by Grindstone Entertainment Group and Lions Gate Entertainment towards the end of 2009.[9]
In 2012 Hector is set to star in Last Tango, that will have Hector co-star with international Spanish star Paz Vega and actress-Super Model Estella Warren. Also Hector is set to star in Hunters, a big budget Hollywood film to be produced by Ron Shusett.
Some of the projects he has in production include: Duran, King of the Cage, Devil's Dogs, Dragon Island, Kill the Dragon and others with distribution by Lionsgate.[4] In September 2009, Hector started production on Unrivaled in Toronto. He is credited as executive producer, writer as well as acting as "Ringo Duran," a "down-on-his-luck cage fighter" along with Rashad Evans and Keith Jardine.[10]
He has helped start the film career of some of his friends, including Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, Rashad Evans, Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida.[11] Echavarria is currently working with writer/producer Ron Shusett,[12] whose sci-fi action and thriller films have reached worldwide grosses of over one and a half billion dollars and who has produced and wrote Total Recall and Minority Report for director Steven Spielberg in the development and the creation of a franchise project with Hector.[13]