Kurt McKinney
- Actor
- Producer
Kurt McKinney originally hails from Louisville, Kentucky. At the age of
21 he was already a black belt in taekwondo and an amateur kickboxing
champion. He decided to become an actor and moved to Hollywood. He
would go on to star in the 1985 film No Retreat, No Surrender as the
lead. The film, one of the 1st Hong Kong-U.S. crossovers (written and
directed by Corey Yuen), also starred the man who would become known as
Van Dammage, Jean-Claude Van Damme as the main villain. The film was a
sizable hit in the U.S. but Kurt didn't want to be typecast. Kurt went
on to star on the soap General Hospital as Ned. This was after he was
turned down for American Ninja because he was too young. He was offered
to appear in American Ninja III-VI but he didn't like the idea of
working on all the films in South Africa (he also turned down "No
Retreat No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder" in 1987 possibly due to the
film's location). Kurt went on to TV films like Sworn to Vengeance to
big-screen films like Blonde Justice with Cynthia Rothrock. He
currently appears on Guiding Light as Matt Reardon, but martial arts
fans will always remember him from his film debut in 1985 as Jason
Stillwell!