 |
|
|
FANLISTING About . Rules . Codes . Join . Members . Update Info . Lost Password .
PART OF Artificial Night . Chaos Rise | HOSTED BY Barbayat .
Biography
Source: WikipediaPark was born in the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, and lived in Govan, Glasgow until moving to London at the age of seven. It was at this age that he started training in Northern Shaolin Kung Fu also known as Chin Woo Kung Fu. Seven years later he would also start training in wushu, and gymnastics. He has since earned his 2nd degree black belt in Northern Shaolin Kung Fu. He has competed many times in martial arts competitions and brought home many awards for them including, at the age of 16, Great Britain's Martial Arts National Championship for his group. He competed as part of the British wushu team at the 1993 World Wushu Games in Malaysia.
He began working in movies as a stunt double for the movie Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, doing the stunts for both Robin Shou (who played Liu Kang) and James Remar (who played Raiden). Park also did some cameos as monsters, including Baraka the Tarkata. All of these were non-speaking roles.
Although his character Darth Maul briefly spoke in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, his voice was dubbed over with that of actor Peter Serafinowicz.
In addition to this acting work, he has also been Christopher Walken's stunt double for the movie Sleepy Hollow. Walken's role was the Headless Horseman, and Park did the mimics in the scenes where the Horseman appears without his head.
His first real speaking part came in X-Men in the part of Toad. Park's Toad was not very similar to the Toad in the X-Men comic books, but nevertheless he caught the public's eye. In one scene of this film, after sending Storm down an elevator shaft, he picks up a length of pipe and swings it around in much the same way he swung his dual-bladed lightsaber as Darth Maul, a signature wushu movement.
He has been asked to become a superhero himself, instead of a villain, in a movie about Marvel Comics character Iron Fist, but the movie has been in preproduction for some years now. Iron Fist deals with an American millionaire who becomes a martial artist with the power of focusing his "life force" or chi into his fist, making it glow with energy and become "like unto a thing of iron" and able to impact with superhuman force.
Along other comic book lines, Ray worked with comic book creator-turned-film-maker Kevin VanHook in the movie Slayer starring in the dual roles of acrobatic twin vampires. This film also saw him appearing again with Sleepy Hollow co-star Casper Van Dien. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Lisa, and their daughter, Sienna.
Trivial Tidbits
Ray's Scar
You may have noticed that Ray has a big scar on the side of his neck. Believe it or not, how that scar came to be is quite an impressive story. The following is copied from the September 2003 issue of Star Wars Insider and was written by Gabriela Tscharner-Patao.
Long before he played hard-edged characters like Darth Maul, Park learned to toughen up when, at the age of 18, he was attacked in London. While on a date, he and his girlfriend strolled by a pub where a group of drunken young men stumbled out and started heckling Park. "They were chasing us down the street," he remembers. "They had their minds set on beating me up. It came to a point where I was defending myself against a group of guys with knives."The fight turned out nothing like the ones the teenager had seen in the movies. "I had practiced a non-contact version of Wushu, which doesn't allow physical fighting. But all the training and the physical fitness certainly helped." At one point he was stabbed in the neck when two of the guys were holding him back, which left a big scar that remains visible to this day. "Luckily it was winter, and I had about three layers of jumpers and a thick jacket on." Park walked away from the fight with only minor injuries, and his girlfriend was not hurt. The incident nonetheless left a string impression. "It was a very scary experience that I would never want to go through again." He says he has learned to use this harrowing experience in his acting, possibly giving him the edge to play villains like Darth Maul convincingly.