[UPDATED] In Memoriam: Brad Allan (1973-2021)
UPDATE (8.8.21, 5:55p.m. EST): Actor Daniel Wu took to Instagram on Sunday to mourn the death of pioneering stunt wunderkind, actor and martial artist Brad Allan. Wu, in expressing his condolences and reflecting on his own memories of Allan, confirmed that the death was the result of a heart attack.
“I remember when Brad just joined the Jackie Chan Stunt Team back in the 90’s. I had just joined Jackie’s management group as an actor and we worked on a couple movies together including Gorgeous and Gen-X Cops. Being wushu guys, we always had a lot to talk about. He was quiet and serious and always demanded perfection of himself. I always admired that part of him. Brad went on to not only become an amazing stunt man but choreographer and coordinator as well. Always brining the Hong Kong style to big Western productions. He did some really innovative work in The Kingsman series and I was looking forward to what he did for the upcoming Shang Chi. When Into The Badlands relocated to Ireland, Brad helped me find stunt men for our team. I remember his last text to me was “Hong Kong Style Forever ”. Brad was one of the good ones taken too early. Rest In Peace brother! ” said Wu.
EARLIER (8.7.21): One of the hardest parts of life is getting over tragedy, an inherent fact that working members of the global stunt community know all too well. Brad Allan stood out as one of the great ones, and continues as such with words of praise and mourning coming to pass as of Friday afternoon, when word got around to the states of the Melbourne-based actor and stunt legend’s death at the age of 48.
Details have not yet been made about Allan’s death, while the world awaits a statement from Allan’s family. In the meantime, friends, relatives and those in the actor’s close circle, as well as other celebrities like Scott Adkins and Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings star Simu Liu, have posted their thoughts on social media, including actor and action star Jackie Chan, who shares as many as a dozen screen credits with Allan dating back to Allan’s break in 1997’s Mr. Nice Guy; According to Chan’s personal blog in which he also mourned the passing of fellow stunt team veteran Yang Sheng, Chan cited that Allan reportedly died from “illness”, expressing in part the following:
Many years ago while I was filming “Mr. Nice Guy”, he was just a fan and I remember him coming to visit the set. At that time, he was crazy about Chinese Kung Fu and had practiced it for many years. It was because of his amazing skills and talent, he transformed from being a fan to a stuntman, and eventually joined my JC Stunt Team. He even fought with me in “Gorgeous”, and I think a lot of people remember this skillful boxer in the movie. He has also contributed to many of my movies.
Allan was a burgeoning world class competitive athlete since the age of ten, and fifteen years later, took his craft to the world of action cinema, just two years after Chan would lead the second “Hong Kong crossover” with New Line Cinema’s Rumble In The Bronx, marking a halcyon era for martial arts action fandom in the West. After performing stunts in Who Am I?, the 1999 release of Vincent Kok’s romantic action comedy Chan starrer, Gorgeous, would then allow Allan to place his lightning-fast feet firmly in the annals of action movie history as a featured fighting character.
As the years passed, Allan would also ante-up behind the scenes as an industry action designer and stunt coordinator, working on such films as Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008), Scott Pilgrim VS. The World (2010), Pacific Rim (2013), The World’s End (2013), Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015), and Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), among numerous others. Allan’s final credit as supervising stunt coordinator and second unit director on Destin Daniel Cretton’s Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, sets sail for theaters and IMAX on September 3.
Native New Yorker. Lover of all things pizza, chocolate, pets, and good friends. Karaoke hero. Left of center. Survivor. Fond supporter of cult, obscure and independent cinema - especially fond of Asian movies and global action cinema. Author of the bi-weekly Hit List. Founder and editor of Film Combat Syndicate. Still, very much, only human.
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