FAREWELL, GENE LEBEL

Martial Arts Community Loses a Grappling Legend

- JASON MCNEIL

On August 9, 2022, in Sherman Oaks, California, Gene LeBell took his final bow, passing away in his sleep at age 89. Known variously as "Judo Gene," "The Toughest Man Alive," "The Godfather of Grappling" and simply "Uncle Gene," he was respected by several generations of martial artists and Hollywood stunt people. It's nearly impossible to overstate the impact and influence this one martial artist had on the many "action worlds" he inhabited.

MAN OF CONTRASTS

LeBell was gregarious while somehow managing to be both a naturalborn showman and a humble martial artist-which was often demonstrated via his famously self-deprecating sense of humor: Most articles about and interviews with him tended to retell his seemingly endless funny stories juxtaposed with a few of the amazing things he'd done in his life. Frankly speaking, those interviews were usually awesome, and no doubt the articles pretty much wrote themselves.

I can say that because I interviewed LeBell on multiple occasions for print and television, and I was lucky enough to be invited to train with him several times. I feel privileged to have been choked out by the master on television, no less-after which he presented me with a custom uniform patch to commemorate the occasion. (Those of you who have "earned" a patch from LeBell know what I'm talking about. It's something you treasure forever)

It was with an article in mind that I spoke with him on the phone last summer. We chatted a bit, but the godfather was in a bit of a grumphe admitted that he wasn't feeling well and had been cooped up in his house for what seemed like forever.

We decided to cut the interview short and reconnect in a week or two when, as he put it, "I feel more like running my mouth at ya.* We both laughed, and I told him that I looked forward to our follow-up conversation. That conversation never happened. Next thing I knew, I heard that he'd passed away.