Gordon Doversola (1 December 1934 – 19 April 2011) was an American martial arts expert who specialized in the
Okinawa-te school of Karate. He taught various film and television celebrities.
Early years
Gordon Doversola was from Hawaii.
He was born on 1 December 1934.
His family was of Hawaiian, Chinese, and Filipino origin, and he retained a strong sense of his cultures.
He started to train in
jujutsu
Jujutsu ( ; ja, link=no, 柔術 , ), also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu, is a family of Japanese martial arts and a system of close combat (unarmed or with a minor weapon) that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdu ...
when he was eleven, and then was taught
kenpō
is the name of several arts. The word kenpō is a Japanese translation of the Chinese word "''quánfǎ''". This term is often informally transliterated as "kempo", as a result of applying Traditional Hepburn romanization, but failing to use ...
by
James Mitose
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
.
He also boxed as an amateur in 56 bouts.
Doversola was proficient in other martial arts before he created his own system which he called Okinawa-te, which he claimed he had learned from Taiken Nagusuko, who had been taught the art by Kehei Motobu. In reality, Doversola created Okinawa-te as an effective and aggressive street fighting art that combined techniques from other martial arts he studied.
Doversola was one of a number of karate instructors who began teaching in the 1950s, some of whom had learned while posted to Okinawa or Japan by the army.
Others were
Ed Parker
Edmund Kealoha Parker (March 19, 1931 – December 15, 1990) was an American martial artist, actor, senior grandmaster, and founder of American Kenpo Karate.
Life
Born in Hawaii, Parker began training in Judo at an early age and later studie ...
,
Cecil T. Patterson,
Donald Hugh Nagle,
George Mattson and
Peter Urban.
Doversola moved to Los Angeles in 1957, where he opened one of the city's first karate
dojos and taught Okinawa-te karate.
He founded the Okinawa-te Karate Organization.
Doversola taught the martial artist
Joe Lewis (1944–2012) and actor
Martin Kove, who earned a black belt.
Okinawa-te
The cover of the 15th issue of ''
Black Belt'' (March 1965) had a photograph of Doversola executing a flying side kick in an Okinawa-te demonstration.
According to Doversola, Okinawa-te is thought to have originated with martial arts brought to the
Ryukyu Islands
The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yona ...
from China.
Because the Japanese did not allow the locals to practice fighting, they developed methods that seemed harmless but were designed to counter Japanese martial arts, and used weapons derived from farm implements.
Weapons thus resemble pitchforks, staffs, paddles and other harmless objects.
The fighting technique is sometimes called the forerunner of modern karate. Doversola claimed that, "In some ways we are more traditional than many kung fu schools, in that our art is derived directly from the monks, or so it is said."
Films and TV
In 1962 Doversola coordinated the stunts and trained
Frank Sinatra for the film ''
The Manchurian Candidate
''The Manchurian Candidate'' is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy.
Th ...
''.
Beau Vanden Ecker, who helped coordinate the fight in ''The Manchurian Candidate'', went on to teach Okinawa-te moves to
Dean Martin for ''
The Silencers
''The Silencers'' is the title of a 1962 spy novel by Donald Hamilton, the fourth in a series of books featuring assassin Matt Helm.
Plot summary
When a female agent in Mexico is killed before Helm can complete his mission to extract her, he f ...
'' (1966).
Doversola played bit parts and provided technical advice in the 1960s television series ''
Burke's Law'' (1963–65), ''
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a secret ...
'' (1964–68) and ''
Honey West
Honey West is a fictional character created by the husband and wife writing team Gloria and Forest Fickling under the pseudonym "G.G. Fickling", and appearing in eleven mystery novels by the duo.
The character is notable as being one of the firs ...
'' (1965–66).
Doversola taught karate moves to
Anne Francis for four months before production started on ''Honey West''.
A double did the more violent moves in the show, but Francis was trained so she could look realistic in the close-up shots.
In the late 1960s Doversola trained the actor and martial artist
Jim Kelly
James Edward Kelly (born February 14, 1960) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons with the Buffalo Bills. He also spent two seasons with the Houston Gamblers of the United Stat ...
, co-star with
Bruce Lee of the classic kung fu film ''
Enter the Dragon
''Enter the Dragon'' ( zh, t=龍爭虎鬥) is a 1973 martial arts film directed by Robert Clouse and written by Michael Allin. The film stars Bruce Lee, John Saxon and Jim Kelly. It was Lee's final completed film appearance before his death o ...
''.
Gordon Doversola died on 19 April 2011 at the age of 76 from complications resulting from a stroke and diabetes.
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Doversola, Gordon
1934 births
2011 deaths
American male karateka
American Kenpo practitioners
American jujutsuka
Martial arts school founders
Sportspeople from Hawaii
20th-century philanthropists