The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Lebell, iconic martial arts pioneer, dies at age of 89
Gene Lebell, regarded as America’s first martial arts sensation before parlaying his athleticism into a career as a professional wrestler, actor and stuntman, has died at the age of 89, his family confirmed.
Lebell, who had been in declining health for the past eight months, died in his sleep at home in Sherman Oaks, with his loving wife of years, Midge, by his side on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022.
“He was larger than life, and he was so kind. If you said you liked his shirt, he would take it off and give it to you,” Midge Lebell said. “I am devastated. It’s very difficult. I have been with him for so many years. I don’t know how you go on without him. I am so used to him being there. He’s not hurting anymore. He was a wonderful man and was so good to so many. There is nothing bad you can really say about him. He was a good person, so I am sure he is doing well where he is at now. I am sure he is happy now. I want to thank everybody in the world who has said such wonderful things about him and all the prayers that were said for him. I am thanking them for both he and I.”
Midge and Gene were married twice. The second time, they said their vows on a motorcycle as Gene performed a wheelie with Midge holding on, followed close behind by the minister on a four-wheeler. The couple wore matching red, white, and blue wedding attire and Midge wore flowers in her helmet.
“Judo Gene” Lebell was revered for his strength and tenacity and often referred to as “the toughest man alive.” Beneath the rugged demeanor, the “Godfather of Grappling” was also known for his warmth and generosity. For years, he taught martial arts in Southern California.
Born Ivan Gene Lebell on Oct. 9, 1932, in Los Angeles, Lebell grew up at the famed Olympic Auditorium, where his mother, Aileen Eaton, was a boxing and wrestling promoter from 1942 to 1980. Eaton was the first woman inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
“Fighters practically raised the young Lebell at the Main Street Gym where he started going at 7 years old,” Midge Lebell said. He once sparred with legendary boxer Sugar Ray Robinson as a teenager. He also trained with wrestlers Lou Thesz, and Karl Gotch while growing up.
It’s no wonder Lebell flocked to combat sports and martial arts.
In 1954 and ’55, Lebell won the AAU National Judo Championships heavyweight and overall divisions. He then embarked on his professional wrestling career, implementing his years of judo and catch wrestling and helping popularize the holds and submission attempts that remain in the sports entertainment industry to this day.
Lebell famously wore a pink gi and would invite anybody to take a turn on the mat with him if they had anything to say about it.
The pink uniform originated from a trip to Japan where a pair of red socks, or shorts, made their way into the laundry, turning his white uniform to pink. With only one uniform, he wore it and beat the competition. The newspaper the following day had a story saying the American radish wins. Lebell thought it was because he had red hair before someone told him it was because of his pink attire. He wore the pink gi from then on.
Lebell was a pioneer in the sport of MMA before there was MMA. One of the first martial artists to train in wrestling, judo, boxing, karate, and other combat arts, he blended the techniques into an efficient fighting style. In 1963, in Salt Lake City, Lebell took on boxer Milo Savage the fifth-ranked light heavyweight boxer in the world. Kenpo Master Ed Parker asked Lebell to take on the fighter after a challenge was issued stating that a boxer could easily beat any martial artist. Lebell wore a gi for the fight, and Savage had his body greased to make it difficult for Lebell to grab him. Lebell was victorious, choking out the boxer in the fourth round, sparking a riot in the auditorium.
Highly decorated in judo and jiu-jitsu, Lebell also began teaching grappling to notable names: Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Benny “the Jet” Urquidez, Roddy Piper, Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, Gokor Chivichyan, Steve Mcqueen, George Reeves, Robert Duvall, John Saxon and many more.
Lebell’s top student, Gokor Chivichyan, started training with him at the age of 16 and now runs the Hayastan MMA Academy in North Hollywood. “I look at Gene as my second father. He had a big heart. He was a good man. We are going to miss him a lot,” Chivichyan said of his teacher.
In 2006, Lebell even welcomed an unsuspecting Daily News reporter to the Hayastan Academy for a lesson that went about as you would think when Lebell started it with his common non-serious threat: “Alright, you bums! Let’s get working, or I’ll burn your houses down.”
In the 1960s, Lebell began acting and doing stunts, including in three movies with Elvis Presley. On the set of “The Green Hornet,” Lebell struck up a friendship with martial arts icon Bruce Lee, and they began cross-training, with Lebell showing Lee his pain-inflicting holds, locks and throws, and Lee demonstrating his lightningquick kicks and strikes. Lee and Lebell had a rocky start to their friendship after Lebell hoisted Lee on his back in a fireman’s carry without Lee’s cooperation. Eventually, Lebell put Lee down, and the pair became friends.
Lebell’s students included Annmaria De Mars, the first American to ever win a gold medal at the World Judo Championships in 1984, and De Mars’ daughter, Ronda Rousey, who became the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo by winning bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics before embarking on her illustrious MMA career.
“Very, very few people believed in me at the very beginning of my MMA career, you could literally count them on one hand. He was one of the people trying to convince my mom to let me do it, but he was also privately trying to convince me not to do it. He totally supported me, he was telling my mom to let me do it, and he was telling me, ‘I’ve won every R-E-A-L fight and never made a penny and lost every R-E-E-L fight and I am comfortably retired, think about that kid.’ He said he would help me out with this MMA stuff, but he was always trying to get me stunt jobs and to meet the right people in the stunt works so I would have somewhere to go after fighting. He not only tried to help me get into fighting, but he also helped me think about life afterward before anybody would even entertain the thought. He was already trying to get me out and convince me that I am more than just a fighter and capable of so much more,” Rousey said of her longtime friend and mentor, Lebell.
In the end, Lebell had appeared in more than 1,000 films, shows and commercials. His roles went from such television series as “Mission: Impossible,” “I Spy,” “The Wild Wild West,” “Baretta,” “Married ... with Children,” and “Baywatch” to feature films “Raging Bull,” “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins” and “Ed Wood.” One of his last appearances was in “Men In Black II” in 2002. Lebell was presented with the Taurus Lifetime Achievement Award on May 13, 2017 for his outstanding contribution to the world of action feature films. The Taurus World Stunt Awards are held yearly to honor stunt performers in movies.
Lebell is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren.
Services will be private, and donations in Gene Lebell’s name can be made to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.