Héctor Echavarría
| Hector Echavarria | |
|---|---|
 Héctor Echavarría in 2011 | |
| Born |
Héctor E. Echavarría December 6, 1969 Corrientes, Argentina |
| Rank |
7th dan black belt in Shury-ryu Karate 7th dan black belt in Kenpo Karate 5th dan black belt in Taekwondo 2nd dan black belt in Jujitsu 2nd dan black belt in Judo |
| Occupation | Actor, film director, screenwriter, producer, martial artist |
Héctor Echavarría (born December 6, 1969) is an Argentine actor, producer, filmmaker, activist, businessman, screenwriter, philanthropist, former Martial arts Champion of the World, and a martial arts master.[1][2]
Biography
Early life
Héctor Echavarría was born in Corrientes, the capital city of the northern province of Corrientes, in his native Argentina. Hector was a sickly child who suffered from severe asthma, and was encouraged by his parents to use martial arts to overcome his handicap. He began his training at the age of 4 by studying Tai Chi Chuan and Chinese boxing with a Shaolin Monk, Grand Master Tung Kuo Tsao. By the age of 13, Hector had learned Judo and Jiu Jitsu under Mayamoto of the Kodokan. As a young teenager he was learning Karate, and Tae Kwon Do, and at the time became the youngest kickboxer to enter the ring professionally.
Echavarria was inducted into the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame in 2000. He was also named the "Full Contact Fighter of the Year" in 2000 and is the former Kickboxing Champion of the World. He has won World Champion status in both the United States Karate Association and the World Kung-Fu Association and remains undefeated Hector defended his belt in eleven world titles kickboxing bouts. He is a Kung-Fu Master and has reached the following levels: 7th dan Karate Shury-ryu, 7th dan Kenpo Karate, 5th dan Tae Kwon Do, 2nd dan Jujitsu, 2nd dan Judo.
When he went to the United States he trained and thrived under the guidance of Grand Master Robert Trias. Eventually, Ed Parker, who was Elvis Presley's bodyguard and the man who put Bruce Lee in movies, discovered Echavarria, who was known for having showmanship in the ring.[3]
Fighting career
Echavarria began his martial arts training at age 4 and his competitive martial arts career at the age of 17 in his native country of Argentina.
Echavarria was chosen Full Contact Fighter of the Year by the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame.[4] He also was chosen to represent and be the leader of the International Karate and Kickboxing Association and Joe Corley's Professional Karate Association for all Latin America. Hector has appeared in more than one hundred martial arts and fitness magazine covers, including Blackbelt, which named Hector "The Next Martial Arts Movie Star", Inside Karate, Men's Fitness, and Martial Arts Illustrated.
He has given more than one hundred kickboxing exhibitions around the world, some in which he sparred with kickboxing champion of the world, Bill Wallace. Echavarria has also given numerous demonstrations with celebrities including the Bee Gees, Philip Michael Thomas, and Richard Simmons.
Echavarria has personally trained and helped achieve higher levels of fitness and health to other martial artists, professional sports athletes and celebrities, including Kendra Wilkinson of Playboy Superstars and The Girls Next Door), former three time World boxing champion Macho Camacho, and professional NFL kicker for the New England Patriots, Super Bowl winner Al Del Greco, and mixed martial arts champions such as Quinton Jackson, Cheick Kongo, and many others.
In October 2016 he will play host to the first-ever Hector Echavarria’s World Martial Arts Mix Martial Arts Championship and Expo in Buenos aires Argentina to be sanctioned by the TFA (Total Fighting Alliance) Which hector is the President for the International Division, the event will also be sanctioned by the United States Martial Arts Organization and the International Union of Martial Artist (UIAMA). More than thirty five Countries, three thousand competitors and twenty of the top martial arts merchandising companies in the world will be present as sponsors.
Film career
After a chance meeting with Miami Vice publicist Carole Myers, Echavarria was asked if he'd want to become an actor. She obtained a television audition for him, and Hector appeared in the 1988 season premiere of Miami Vice: Down for the Count. A few years later, an Argentine producer saw Echavarria in a television demonstration and cast him in the action film Los Extermineitors. This film and its two sequels became the highest grossing winter release movies in South America.[5] Hector played a main character in the Argentine action comedy television series Brigada Cola along with fellow Los Extermineitors cast member and comedian Guillermo Francella, which ran in South America, Europe, and the Middle East from 1992 to 1997.
In April 2009, Echavarria filmed a feature called Death Warrior in Toronto, co-starring Nick Mancuso of Under Siege and Rapid Fire.[6] It was produced by Sean Buckley of Buck Productions and directed by Bill Corcoran and would be distributed by Grindstone Entertainment Group and Lions Gate Entertainment towards the end of 2009.[7]
Some of the projects he has in production include Last Tango, Kill the Dragon and others with distribution by Lionsgate.[8] In 2010, Hector started production on Unrivaled in Toronto. He is credited as executive producer, writer as well as acting as "Ringo Duran," a "down-on-his-luck cage fighter" along with Rashad Evans and Keith Jardine.[9]
Among many other features, Echavarria produced the horror flick Lake Dead, with theatrical distribution through After Dark Films. Later on, Hector produced and starred in Confessions of a Pit Fighter, distributed by Lionsgate. In 2008, he wrote, directed and starred as Diego Carter in the film Never Surrender,[10] also distributed by Lionsgate. In his upcoming “Duel of Legends”, Hector, not only co-stars with popular actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (“Tekken”, “Memoirs of a Geisha”, “Pearl Harbor”, “Mortal Kombat”) and with his student and UFC superstar, Quinton Jackson (co-star of the new “The A-Team” movie) but also Hector directed the Feature Film set to be theatrically released in October 2014: Duel of Legends.
He has helped start the film career of some of his friends, including Georges St-Pierre, BJ Penn, Rashad Evans, Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida.[11] Echavarria is currently working with writer/producer Ronald Shusett,[12] whose sci-fi action and thriller films have reached worldwide grosses of over one and a half billion dollars and who has produced and wrote Total Recall and Minority Report for director Steven Spielberg in the development and the creation of a franchise project with Hector.[13]
In 2013 Echavarria directed, wrote and starred in Chavez Cage of Glory with Danny Trejo, James Russo and Steven Bauer, it was produced by Destiny Entertainment Productions.[14] In 2015 Hector filmed No Way Out, that will have him co-star again with Danny Trejo and actress-supermodel Estella Warren. No Way Out will be released in theaters in 2016 and distributed by Lionsgate. Hector is today producing and acting in big budget films and has a planned schedule for the next 10 years, including in-development films like Justice for All, Bloom with Keanu Reeves, and Mounds of Clay with Olga Kurylenko.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Los Extermineitors | Héctor | Film (released in Argentina) |
| 1990 | Extermineitors II: La venganza del dragón | Héctor | Film (released in Argentina) |
| 1991 | Extermineitors III: La gran pelea final | Héctor | Film (released in Argentina) |
| 1992 | Fuerza máxima | Héctor | Video (released only in Argentina) |
| 2001 | Extreme Force | Marcos DeSantos | |
| The Falkland Man | Hector Riviera | Video (a.k.a. Los bravos/Los Bravos and Final Assault) | |
| 2003 | Cradle 2 the Grave | Ultimate Fighter | |
| 2005 | Confessions of a Pit Fighter | Eddie Castillo | |
| 2009 | Never Surrender | Diego Carter | |
| Hell's Chain | Robert Santos | ||
| Death Warrior | Reinero | ||
| 2010 | Unrivaled | Ringo Duran | |
| Death Calls | Gabriel | ||
| 2012 | Revan | Daniel Del Toro | |
| 2013 | Chavez Cage of Glory | Hector Chavez | |
| Duel of Legends | Dex | ||
| 2014 | No Way Out | Del Toro | |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Miami Vice | Batista | TV series - Episode: "Down for the Count: Part 1" (1987) |
| 1992 | Brigada cola | Hector | TV Series (1992-1994) |
| 2001 | El gordo y la flaca | N/A | TV Series - Episode dated August 28, 2001 |
References
- ↑ Hector Echavarria. Movies.nytimes.com. Retrieved on 2011-12-28.
- ↑ Gary Dretzka Digital Nation: DVDs, VOD and HD: Looking Forward, Looking Back. Movie City News. January 4, 2011. Retrieved on 2011-12-28.
- ↑ "Latino Action Hero". Hispanic Times Magazine. Findarticles.com. 2001-01-12. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ↑ "2000 Inductees". United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on August 11, 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ↑ "Héctor Echavarría". cinenacional.com. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ↑ "Death Warrior". MovieSet. 2010-05-04. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ↑ "MovieSet.com Gives Movie Fans 'LIVE DEATH' With Daily Behind the Scenes Access on...". Reuters. 2009-03-13. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ↑ Patrick Ridgell. "Kung Fu-kicking good: Hector Echavarria: actor: Los Angeles, CA – Face", Latino Leaders, April–May 2002. Retrieved on 2008-06-27.
- ↑ "Unrivaled". MovieSet. 2010-04-27. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ↑ "Never Surrender – Crew – Above the line". MovieSet. Archived from the original on January 15, 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ↑ Davidson, Neil (2009-03-21). "St. Pierre and other MMA fighters leave the cage for the big screen". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ↑ Destiny Entertainment and Skywalk Productions partner on two film projects produced by sci-fi lengend Ron Shusett and will star Argentine martial arts phenomenon Hector Echavarria. Hispanictips.com (2007-12-03). Retrieved on 2011-12-28.
- ↑ "Shusett films meet Destiny – Entertainment News, Film News, Media". Variety. 2007-11-18. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
- ↑ Welkos, Robert W. (August 29, 2013). "Actor enters 'Chavez: Cage of Glory' to escape stereotypical roles". Los Angeles Times.
External links
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