Kim Kahana, stuntman, teacher, coordinator and war hero, plays Chongo in children’s show danger island and served as a stunt double for Charles Bronson, now deceased, in several action films. He is 94 years old.
Kahana died of natural causes Monday at his home in Groveland, Florida, his wife, Sandy Kahana, told reporters. hollywood reporter.
Kahana, who is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds, has taught stunts to thousands of students in six-week classes in Chatsworth, Calif., and Central Florida since the mid-1970s. Many went on to have thriving careers in show business.
He also holds six different black belt degrees – he also teaches martial arts – and works as a professional bodyguard protecting Hollywood types.
Kahana, a native of Hawaii, made his first film appearance as a biker in the film starring Marlon Brando wild one (1953), he worked as an extra in other films before he realized that stuntmen were being paid more than he was.
He learned stunts and stunt coordination from Honorary Academy Award winner Yakima Canutt, who served as Clark Gable’s stunt double in “Clark Gable.” Gone with the wind (1939) and in Benhao (1959).
exist banana split adventure timeis a Saturday morning children’s show that aired on NBC from 1968-70 and later in syndication, and Kahana appeared in the show’s live-action series danger island Jongo is a local who speaks no English and uses animal and bird sounds to communicate.
“I got the call to audition for the role,” he recalled in 2012. “I jumped on the table, did a backflip, and I got hired.”
“Uh-oh, Jong-go!” is the catchphrase used to trigger each adventure in the clip, starring Jane-Michael Vincent and directed by Richard Donner.
Kahana’s lithe athleticism and size mean he can back up Stefanie Powers uncle girl and sally field Flying Nun.
His resume as a stuntman, coordinator and/or actor includes Cool Hand Luke (1967), planet of the apes (1968), Patton (1970), Soy green (1973), earthquake (1974), Killer Elite (1975), Smokey and the Bandit (1977), MacArthur (1977), Good guys wear black (1978), Passengers 57 (1992) and jeep crawler (2001).
“In hundreds of movies and TV shows, Kahana has been beaten, burned, sliced, dropped, shot, ejected, hit by cars and exploded, sometimes as a hallucination, sometimes as fact,” Los Angeles Times wrote in 1987.
That stunt was for Airport 1975 (1974).
Kahana was born on October 16, 1929 in Lanai, Hawaii. He dropped out of school in the third grade and came to the United States as a stowaway. At the age of 13, he hitchhiked to Boston, where he lived with an uncle and aunt.
He collaborated with bandleader Xavier Cugat and performed as a knife dancer in a stage show called Samoan Warriors.
Kahana received two Bronze Stars, a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts for his service during the Korean War. After an enemy firing squad executed him, he emerged from a mass grave when a grenade exploded, blinding him in his left eye.
In 1955, he was the sole survivor of a plane crash in Texas that killed all 32 people on board. “I walked away unhurt,” he said.
When Kahana was driving a friend to an audition on his motorcycle, he was discovered by the casting agent and asked to come in, leading to his wild one.
His career in Hollywood flourished in the 1960s, appearing in films starring Elvis Presley Fun in Acapulco (1963) and Paradise, Hawaiian style (1966) as well as television programs including time tunnel, high jungle and Ironside.
when The Brady Bunch In 1972, during the show’s fourth season, Kahana traveled to Hawaii and was seen performing a fire dance in an episode starring Vincent Price. Later he found a regular job Kung Fu and Nickelodeon GUTS.
He replaced Bronson in a number of films, including the great seven (1960), dirty twelve (1967), mechanic (1972), death wish (1974), gentlemen. His Majesty (1974) and breakthrough (1975).
His students include stunt performers Heidi Schnappauf, Tom Place, Billy D. Lucas (Arnold Schwarzenegger) (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s stunt double) and Joanne Lamstein (Barbra Streisand’s stunt double).
Kahana is a long-time member of the SAG Security Investigation Team, and his incredible life story is told in a 2023 documentary Kim Kahana: The man who changed Hollywood.
Last year he did assembly work for a movie, and in his final days he was still teaching stunt work.
In addition to his wife, whom he married in 2005, they are Passengers 57 Survivors include his children Tony, Kim Jr. and Debbie when she was an extra, and his grandchildren Michael, Lance, Carana and author Josh. Another son, Rick, died of a heart attack in 2012 at the age of 51.
All of his children followed their father into the stunt industry.
