“Sensei To The Stars”

Emil Farkas 1946 - 

“Sensei To The Stars”

Emil Farkas is a Hungarian American martial arts instructor, author,and historian, who is best known for his monumental reference book “The Martial Arts Encyclopedia” . The best selling book is the most definitive one volume book on the martial arts. Farkas has also recently authored the definitive “Photo History of the Martial Arts in America” With close to 2,000 photographs covering martial arts from 1900 to the present.

Farkas who began his martial arts training with Judo while still a youngster, and was a student of British Judo champion Alphie Graber. In his teens he began training in karate under Masami Tsuroka, and upon his move to California he became a student of Shotokan instructor Santi Josol. He continued his training in Japan under Masatoshi Nakayama and also trained at the Kodokan under 9th dan Sumiyuki Kotani. In 1966 he began giving karate lessons to Dennis Hopper of “Easy Rider” fame, which led him to become involved in the Hollywood entertainment field. In the mid sixties he began working as a Hollywood fight coordinator, for movies and television and was among the first few black belts to do so. In an interview for Official Karate Magazine, Farkas stated that in those days, the only martial artist working regularly in Hollywood was Gene Le Bell, Ed Parker, Bruce Tegner and himself.

In 1970 he opened the Beverly Hills Karate Academy, and soon he was dubbed as “Sensei to the Stars, for the large number of Hollywood celebrities that he was training Among them was Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Mike Connors, James Caan, Herb Alpert, Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame, Lou Adler, Lalo Schifrin (composer of Enter the Dragon and Mission Imposible), Fred Williamson, Gary Lewis, The Buffalo Sprinfgields, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Barry Gordi Lorenzo Lamas, Peggy Lipton, Linda Blair etc. He told “Karate Illustrated” once that he felt his greatest contribution to the martial arts was that many of his celebrity students constantly exposed the martial arts to the media at its infancy, and many people began studying the martial arts due to their influence.