Who was the biggest name in martial arts before Bruce Lee?

Answer 1

Before Bruce Lee the Martial Arts were not big outside of the Asian Pacific region. His demonstrations and movies helped bring it to the main stream in the US and related countries. While martial arts movies were huge in China and environs as early as the 1920s and 30s, they didn't catch on in the US until the late 1960's with Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. The success of the television show Kung Fu (originally designed for Bruce Lee) was also a driving force. Later on, Jackie Chan, Jean-Claude VanDamme and Stephan Seagal kept the genre alive and moving. It's true that there wasn't much mainstream interest in the martial arts prior to Bruce Lee's demonstration at Ed' Parker's 1964 Long Beach International Karate Tournament, there were others before Bruce Lee that were teaching and competing. There was a whole thriving martial arts community in the US that included Ed Parker (instructor and body guard to Elvis Presley), Bill "Super Foot" Wallace (world champion, instructor and actor) and Chuck Norris (world champion, creator of Chun Kuk Do, instructor, actor). There are many others that were here long before Bruce came on the scene. Famous champions of the 60's include Joe Lewis, Mitchell Bobrow, Skipper Mullins, Thomas LaPuppet, Alan Steen and Mike Stone. Most of the instructors that were around before that fateful day in 1964 learned their arts while stationed over-seas during their military service in WW II and Korea. There was a time in the 40' and 50's when the public's knowledge of the martial arts ended with Judo and instructors of the "new" styles had to advertise as Judo schools in order to get any students.