Forest Whitaker

An athlete turned actor

Born on 15 July 1961 in Longview, Texas, Forest Whitaker played high-school football and went to Cal Poly Pomona on a football scholarship until a back injury steered him towards singing. He studied opera, then acting, at USC, graduating in 1982.

All along he kept up serious martial arts training: kenpo karate three or four times a week from age 11 into his fifties, earning a black belt, and eskrima, the Filipino stick and blade art, first under Bruce Lee's former student Dan Inosanto.

From Vision Quest to Bloodsport

In Vision Quest (1985), a high-school wrestling drama, he has a supporting role as Balldozer alongside Matthew Modine's wrestler Louden Swain. In 1988 he was Rawlins, one of the Army agents chasing Van Damme's Frank Dux in Bloodsport, and won Best Actor at Cannes for Bird.

Ghost Dog

His most martial role is Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), a hitman who lives by the Hagakure. He prepared by studying Eastern philosophy and meditating, and his rooftop sword and machete drills show a man at ease with weapons.

In the corner

After his 2007 Oscar for The Last King of Scotland, boxing called twice: as gym owner Tick Wills, who reluctantly trains Jake Gyllenhaal in Southpaw (2015), and as Doc Broadus, George Foreman's first trainer, in Big George Foreman (2023). In 2025 he appeared in Havoc, from The Raid director Gareth Evans. He is a UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation.