100hotmen2012

Date of Birth

23 August 1974, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Birth Name

Raymond Park

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

Raymond Park was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He moved with his parents, younger brother and sister to London, England. He was raised in London from the age of seven. His father introduced him into Martial Arts from a young age. Ray always wanted to be in the movies, or be like the heroes in movies but he was most inspired by martial arts. He began to nurture a love for martial arts from the age of seven, when his father's love of Bruce Lee films sparked a fire in the youngster's mind that would never extinguish. Specializing in the traditional Chinese Northern Shaolin Kung-fu (in the Chin Woo style) Park moved on to master various other styles, most notably Wushu. In 1991, at age 16, Ray became a member of the Great Britain Wushu team competing in his first international in Beijing, China at the 1st World Wushu Championships. Ray was the first Wushu athletic from Great Britain and Europe to place in the top seven in the world. He went on to compete for Great Britain for another six years. Ray became a fixture at martial arts exhibitions and tournaments, Nationally, European and Internationally attaining Gold Medal for the Great Britain Wushu and Chin Woo Martial Arts team.

Ray began teaching himself gymnastics at a young age but felt he was missing the correct training to achieve a higher level. At age 15, he found a school that was willing to allow him to practice and use the floor space. The gymnastic training helped to improve his martial arts training and began to sit in and take seminars in coaching gymnastics. It was when he was 19, he relocated to another gymnastic gym and became one of the boys squad coaches and further went on to be in charge of coaching recreational gymnastics throughout schools in London. Ray's boys squad won 1st in The London Youth Games for Hendon Gymnastics Club. It was during one of his frequent visits to Malaysia that he was approached to audition for Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997). Ray became martial arts advisor to one of the stunt coordinator's and later landed playing one of the Reptiles, Baraka and doubling for Rayden.

Conjuring memories of his youthful cinematic martial arts passion, Park attempted to learn as much as possible about the process of filmmaking. Soon gaining more scenes and becoming more natural on the set, he was later contacted by stunt coordinator Nick Gillard to audition for George Lucas' prequel Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). Offered the job by producer Rick McCallum, Park was given the creative freedom to develop his choreography by an impressed Lucas, and was soon gaining the confidence to develop his role to the best of his abilities.

Spouse

Lisa	(? - present) 2 children

Trade Mark

During fighting scenes, he always does a spin move. See: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), X-Men (2000), Sleepy Hollow (1999) and Fanboys (2009).

Trivia

Was a member of the British Wushu Team.
Holds a second degree black belt in Wushu and came in second place at the 1995 world championships.
Has a younger brother.
He was en route to a martial arts exhibition when he got the cell phone call from producer Rick McCallum that he gotten the part of Darth Maul. He was so shocked and excited that had to pull over.
His first real speaking part came in X-Men (2000) in the part of Toad. Although his character Darth Maul briefly spoke in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), his voice was dubbed over with that of actor Peter Serafinowicz.
15th-17th April 2005 - Attended the Wellington Armaggeddon Pulp Expo Convention in New Zealand as the special Star Wars guest.
In X-Men (2000), both he and Shawn Ashmore play characters originally voiced by Frank Welker.
Has a daughter called Sienna and a son.

Personal Quotes

[on having to shave his head for the role of Darth Maul] "At first, I lost my confidence a little. I'm used to having my hair, but now you have this bald thing on top. Then I got into it. It was easy and free; I didn't have to wash my hair. I just took a hot towel and buffed it to make it nice and shiny."

Where Are They Now

(May 2005) Attending Collectormania 7 at Milton Keynes
(June 2005) Attending Revelations 2005. A Star Wars convention in Mérida, Yucatán, México.
(May 2007) Signing autographs at Collectormania 11 in Milton Keynes, UK.
(June 2007) Star Wars Weekends: Lake Buena Vista, Florida (Walt Disney World; Disney-MGM Studios)
(December 2011) Picture wrap as Snake Eyes in G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)