With his funky Afro hairstyle, super cool attitude and superb karate skills, Jim Kelly was instantly identifiable, and one of the top martial arts film stars of the early 1970s. After appearing in a minor film role, Kelly's second screen effort was as one of the invited guests to the deadly Han's Island in Enter the Dragon. Kelly quickly cropped up in several more martial arts influenced "blaxploitation" films including Three the Hard Way, Golden Needles and Black Belt Jones, with its interesting fight finale in a soap filled car wash! He then appeared in several other action films of the late seventies, however since 1980, Kelly has only cropped up in two minor roles. A talented athlete, winning ranked titles both in tennis and karate, Jim Kelly was an integral part of the African-American & martial arts cinematic explosion of the 1970s.
International Middle Weight Karate Champion (1971) Was first interested in karate after leaving the University of Louisville as a freshman and moving to Lexington; began studying martial arts under karate instructor Parker Sheldon Became a professional tennis player in 1975, rising to No. 2 in California in the senior men's doubles rankings and reaching the state's top ten in senior men's singles.