Ho-Sung Pak (born November 8, 1967) is a Korean-American film actor, stunt performer, martial artist, action choreographer, game character, writer, and producer.

Life and career

Pak, a Korean American, was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. He played lead character

Liu Kang Liu Kang is a character (arts), fictional player character, character in the ''Mortal Kombat'' fighting game series by Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios. Depicted as Earthrealm's greatest warrior and champion, he is generally the main hero of ...

in the first ''

Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a v ...

'' and ''

Mortal Kombat II ''Mortal Kombat II'' is a 1993 arcade fighting game originally produced by Midway for the arcades in 1993. It was later ported to multiple home systems, including MS-DOS, Amiga, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Genesis, 32X, Sega Saturn, Super Nint ...

'', as well as the original elderly version of

Shang Tsung The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and f ...

in the first game. He was a stunt coordinator for the movie '' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze'' as well as a stunt double for

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

; he later reprised his role of stunt double in the movie ''

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III'' is a 1993 American superhero film written and directed by Stuart Gillard. It is the sequel to '' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze'' (1991), and the final installment in the original ' ...

''. Pak, along with other actors from the first two ''Mortal Kombat'' games, refused to appear in ''

Mortal Kombat 3 ''Mortal Kombat 3'' is a 1995 arcade fighting game developed by Midway Games and first released into arcades in 1995. It is the third main installment in the '' Mortal Kombat'' franchise and a sequel to 1993's ''Mortal Kombat II''. As in the p ...

'' due to a royalty dispute with developer Midway over the use of their likenesses across various console versions of the first two games, resulting in the casting of new actors for some of the returning characters. In 1995, Pak and fellow ''Mortal Kombat'' actors

Daniel Pesina Daniel Pesina (born December 1, 1959) is an American martial arts expert and a former freelance employee of Midway. Pesina was born in Chicago, Illinois to Mexican born parents and have study martial arts since the age of 10. Pesina started ...

, Katalin Zamiar, and Phillip Ahn lent their likenesses to a fighting game produced exclusively for the

Atari Jaguar The Atari Jaguar is a home video game console developed by Atari Corporation and released in North America in November 1993. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it competed with the 16-bit Sega Genesis, the Super NES and the ...

titled ''

Thea Realm Fighters ''Thea Realm Fighters'' (''TRF'') is an unreleased fighting game that was in development by High Voltage Software and planned to be published by Atari Corporation on a scheduled October 1995 release date exclusively for both the Atari Jaguar and ...

'', but it was cancelled after Atari discontinued the failed system later that year. In 2002, he played the leading role in the martial arts movie '' Book of Swords''. In it he portrayed Lang, an Asian cop who after witnessing the death of his brother during a drug bust gone wrong, leaves town only to come back three years later for revenge. The movie also starred MK actors Daniel Pesina, Katalin Zamiar and Richard Divizio. In a nod to his Mortal Kombat alter ego Liu Kang, Pak is shown wearing a red headband during the final part of the movie, while the other three actors are also seen in similar MK clothing/roles throughout the movie. In 2004 Pak starred in the martial film ''

Lesser of Three Evils ''Fist of the Warrior'', formerly known as ''Lesser of Three Evils'', is a martial arts/ crime film directed by Wayne A. Kennedy in his feature film directorial debut. It stars Ho-Sung Pak, Peter Greene, Roger Guenveur Smith and Sherilyn Fenn, ...

'', directed by Wayne A. Kennedy, also starring Roger Guenveur Smith,

Peter Greene Peter Greene (born Peter Green; October 8, 1965) is an American actor. A character actor, he is generally known for portraying villains. He is best known for the roles in the 1994 films ''The Mask'', where he plays the films antagonist, Dorian ...

Rosa Blasi Rosa Blasi (born December 19, 1972) is an American actress, author, model and therapist. She is known for her roles as Luisa Delgado in the Lifetime medical drama series '' Strong Medicine'' and Barb Thunderman in the Nickelodeon series ''The Th ...

and

Sherilyn Fenn Sherilyn Fenn (born Sheryl Ann Fenn; February 1, 1965) is an American actress and author. She came to attention for her performance as Audrey Horne on the television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991, 2017) for which she was nominated for a Go ...

. The film was produced by Ho-Sung Pak, Wayne A. Kennedy and Matthew Chausse who created together the film company GenOne. It was released in 2009 under the title ''

Fist of the Warrior ''Fist of the Warrior'', formerly known as ''Lesser of Three Evils'', is a martial arts/ crime film directed by Wayne A. Kennedy in his feature film directorial debut. It stars Ho-Sung Pak, Peter Greene, Roger Guenveur Smith and Sherilyn Fenn, ...

''.Lionsgate Publicity: February 2009
In the 1995-1997 TV show ''

WMAC Masters ''WMAC Masters'' is an American live-action television show produced by Norman Grossfeld featuring choreographed martial arts fights. It was created and produced by 4Kids Productions (later known as 4Kids Entertainment) in conjunction with Ren ...

'', his ki-symbol was "Superstar", which is a translation of his given Korean name. The show featured his older brother, Ho Young Pak ("Star Warrior"), as well as fellow Mortal Kombat actors

Chris Casamassa Chris Casamassa (born January 17, 1965) is an American martial artist, actor and stuntman who is best known for his role as Scorpion in the movie ''Mortal Kombat'' and the related TV show, '' Mortal Kombat: Conquest''. He is the son of martial ar ...

("Red Dragon") and Hakim Alston ("The Machine").

Filmography

References

External links

*
The Book of Swords (2003)Lost Games: Thea Realm FightersHo-Sung Pak-interview
on (re)Search my Trash {{DEFAULTSORT:Pak, Ho-Sung 1967 births American male film actors American martial artists American male television actors American male video game actors South Korean emigrants to the United States Living people People from Seoul Action choreographers American male actors of Korean descent