studying karate since age 6 (although he is half Italian…his Dad’s Italian and his mom is African American). His Dad was studying karate at the time, so Taimak did too and get this: just like in the movie, Taimak idolized Bruce Lee in real life and wanted to be him when he grew up. He’s since received black belts in Goju Ryu Karate, Jeet Kune Do, Wing Chun, Hapkido, Jujutsu, and Tae Kwon Do.

So what we were seeing in the movie wasn’t acting. Well the parts about him winning the girl at the end (Vanity) and beating up “Sho-nuff” was, but not the actual martial arts stuff.

Based on the success of The Last Dragon, it was looking like Taimak’s career was about to skyrocket, but that didn’t happen and according to The Last Dragon producer, Rupert Hitzig, and one of Taimak’s childhood friends, actress Troy Beyer (from The Five Heartbeats), it was Taimak’s ego that got in the way.

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I do know that he (Taimak) was offered a sequel (to The Last Dragon), because I was involved…and he held out for a 3 picture deal, says Rupert Hitzig, The Last Dragon producer. “Sometimes it’s your own ego that gets you in trouble.”

If you’re not anchored in something greater than your ego, you’re going down and I do think that Taimak got kicked pretty hard,” says actress/childhood friend, Troy Beyer.

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Source: TV One’s “Life After”

Taimak says his career failures after The Last Dragon was very hard for him to deal with…
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“It was basically one of the first big failures of my life. Expecting for the…

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