BLOGGIN' BIN REVUE

Jim Kelly is “Too Busy Lookin’ Good”

Friends, as people who know me well will attest, if there’s one entertainment personality out there I idolize, who I’d like to be, it’s Richard Dawson.

Suavest. Man. Ever.

(You can read more about my love of Richard Dawson in this post written back in my MySpace days.)

But if you were to take Richard Dawson off the table because you’re a cold-hearted cad whose mother didn’t love you enough, then I’d have to go with Jim Kelly. 

Buffalo Bill's QB Jim Kelly, doing what he does best: Lose Super Bowls

Good God, no.  I meant Jim “Black Belt Jones” Kelly.

FUN FACT: Based on this image, I created Jim Kelly for my copy of WWE Smackdown!, where he is the current Intercontinental Champion.

Aw, shit yeah!  You probably know Jim Kelly as “that black guy in Enter the Dragon with the awesome ‘fro and all the cool lines.”  Mr. Kelly, a martial arts champion,went on to star in a number of blaxploitation films such as Black Belt Jones and Black Samurai.

Sadly, I have not reviewed any of Jim Kelly’s films for the Bargain Bin Review — largely out of respect.  But I did highly recommend/browbeat Jason Soto to review Black Belt Jonesduring his Blaxploitation Month at Invasion of the B-Movies, and you can read his review here.

Anyway, when I hear the words “Jim Kelly,” I perk up.  Which is exactly what happened yesterday when I caught this piece in Salon.com:

JIM KELLY, “ENTER THE DRAGON’S” BADDEST MOTHER

By Bob Calhoun

In the section of WonderCon in San Francisco reserved for cult TV and movie actors, Lou Ferrigno flexed his muscles across from Peter Mayhew, the 7-foot-tall Englishman who played Chewbacca in a thick fur suit before Lucas gave us digitized Wookies. Lindsay “The Bionic Woman” Wagner sat one table down from Erin Gray from “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,” and, strangely, Mo Mallady, the voice of the animated pitch lady in a series of Esurance commercials, was on hand to sign 8-by-10’s of her pink-haired avatar. But the biggest surprise among the tables in autograph alley at this year’s WonderCon was the appearance by Jim “Enter the Dragon” Kelly, the “baddest mother ever to hit the big screen.”

Check out the entire piece over at Salon.com.