Biography

July 30, 1962 · Los Angeles, California, USA

Loren Rains Avedon

6′ 3″ (1.91 m)

[on his favorite kickers] I like Tony Jaa, Scott Adkins, and Donnie Yen and of course the great stunt men who you see flying in and getting kicked out, who will never get any credit. Of course, my all-time favorite is the original, the one and only, Bruce Lee.

[on how he got cast in No Retreat, No Surrender II]Actually, Van Damme had turned down the film so they chose Matthius Hues for his part. I replaced Kurt McKinney. I was at the Karate school at about 9:30 PM on a Friday night. I had just come back from Africa where I had been on safari with my dad for 8 weeks. I was broke and had a job selling used cars at a Dodge dealership in town. I hadn't sold a car all week and was at the school beating the shit out of the heavy bag to take out my frustrations when the phone rang. The Latin guy who answered the phone did not understand what the caller was saying, the caller turned out to be Roy Horan from Seasonal films. A week later and after he had seen about 75 other candidates, I signed a 3 picture deal and was on a plane to Thailand.

[on Lorenzo Lamas] He was a student of mine and I helped him on a Self Defense Video he was doing...for about 5 minutes until during the blocking of the first choreographed demo he promptly broke my nose and cheek with an elbow across the face that was supposed to miss me by a mile. Lorenzo called me crying the next day. I said, "Just send me some flowers and come and visit me and we'll call it cool". He never called, never visited...and when his manager called me to say that he would take care of everything...that's when I got a lawyer. I was born at night but I wasn't born last night, know what I mean? So I took care of myself. I was paid well for that accident.

[on why he turned down King of the Kickboxers 2] My contract was up...they did not want to pay the fee I was asking.

The actress Sheri Rose bad mouthed me after the "King of the Kickboxers". I told her to shut up one day when she was pitching a fit out in the Jungle, acting like a prima donna. No time or place for that and I told her. She came back and got a deal with PM who wanted to sign me for 3 pictures. I should have done it...it would have been me instead of Don "The Dragon" Wilson. But I was trying to hold out and she ended up getting the deal with Lorenzo Lamas. My name was mud to producers after 1991. If I had just let Sheri have her fit and kept my mouth shut, I think I could have had a much more successful career.