You Probably recently seen Mark Dacascos as the villain Zero in John Wick 3. Prior to that, he had a really good run in the 1990s, starting with Only The Strong and then following it up with Double Dragon. He was all set to take the late Brandon Lee's lead as the go to guy for 20th Century Fox action movies.

Welcome to Part 4 of 5 of Martial Arts Movies Stars of the 90s that weren't Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal. Mark Dacascos is a lifelong martial artist who has won numerous karate and kung fu championships between the ages of 7 and 18. This should not be a surprise, as his father, Al Dacascos is a martial arts instructor, who created his own martial arts style called Wun Hop Kuen Do. In addition to that, his step mother, Malia Bernal was a martial arts champion and the first female to appear on the cover of Black Belt Magazine in September of 1974.

Although having 2 martial arts Champions and instructors in the house while growing up, Mark Dacascos says Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee were huge influences for him; in fact, Jackie Chan was the one that inspired him to get into gymnastics. This just goes to show how powerful movies are, especially to a young impressionable mind.

As far as physical stats go, Mark Dacascos is 5’9”, which is right up there with Jean-Claude Van Damme, as well as Tae Kwon Do sensation Philip Rhee, who I previously covered on part 2 of this series on this channel.
As far as what Mark Dacascos weighs; he’s kept a pretty consistent build his entire career and is athletic and lean, weighing in the 150s; so he definitely has a physique more akin to Philip Rhee, both of whom are less muscled up than the muscles from Brussels, Jean Claude Van Damme.

Mark Dacascos is what Hollywood would say is Ethnically ambiguous. There’s a very interesting article in Flickering Myth.com that talks about this:
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“There’s a certain indefinable quality that works for some in Hollywood (Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), but puts studios off in others, which is seemingly (the case for Dacascos). This undoubtedly worked against him. Not “white” enough to play an all-American hero, and not “Asian” enough to play those roles set aside for Asian-American actors in the 90’s (which were predominantly villains).

Casting standpoint aside, Mark Dacascos certainly has an interesting background, he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, Al Dacascos, was of Filipino, Spanish and Chinese descent, while his mother was of Irish and Japanese descent. In Hawaii, this is known as being a Hapa, a term which originated in the 1800s and initially meant being “half”, but later just meant being “mixed”, when referring to someone of mixed European and Asian and/or Pacific Islander descent.

So Mark Dacascos was cast in the theatrically released Only The Strong, which was actually an important film, as it introduced the world to a new martial art, never before seen in American cinemas, Brazilian Capoeira.

The writer and director of Only The Strong was the same guy that wrote Bloodsport. Prior to Only the Strong, Sheldon Lettich not only wrote Bloodport, but also Rambo 3, another action classic; he would then go on to write and direct Lionheart, and then Double Impact; by far 2 of Van Dammes greatest action films!

So Mark Dacascos trained in Capoeira for 2 months with Mestre Amen Santo before officially auditioning for the role in Only The Strong; this was followed by an additional 5 months of training after landing the role.

Mark Dacascos showed real charm and charisma as the lead; the story had a good message, the action was fun and exciting, as we have just never seen this sort of style of martial art in any film; it was like seeing Aikido for the first time when Steven Seagal burst on the scene with Above The Law; it was just different. The film had a real budget, which just helps everything shine; however, the problem was the marketing, it was never really given a fair shot.

Case in point, here’s an interview with Sheldon Lettich:
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Although Mark Dacascos never became a household name, or even as big an action star as Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal, he still ended up with what would be considered a successful career in film and television.

As far as television goes, you could make the argument that he’s found even more success in that arena, appearing in numerous series, such as The Crow: Stairway to Heaven in the late 90s, 2008’s The Legend of Bruce Lee as a Thai Boxer, Mortal Kombat Legacy in 2013 as Kung Lao, he’s also had a recurring role in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Wu Assassins and Hawaii Five-0. You may have also seen him in the Iron Chef series as The Chairman.

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