Brad Morris knew exactly when he was bitten by the acting bug. At the age of six, he watched "Dr. No" at a theater in his hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa, and was mesmerized by Sean Connery's portrayal of James Bond. The boy decided then that acting would be his dream job.
After finishing school, Morris fulfilled South Africa's mandatory military service requirement, qualifying as a drill instructor and marksman. He then left a cushy administrative job to become a bouncer in nightclubs. Morris was already a trained and gifted martial artist and learned to box, combining his skills for success as a professional kickboxer.
A talent agency took notice and booked Morris for small roles on television and in American action movies being filmed in South Africa. He supplemented his acting jobs with stunt work, which he calls "the greatest schooling any actor could have for movement in front of a camera."
Morris's first big break did not happen in front of the camera, but on the theatrical stage. He was cast in the premiere foreign production of Alan Bowne's controversial play "Beirut." The play depicts a United States that quarantines its citizens with an epidemic resembling AIDS and segregates them from healthy members. Morris toured with "Beirut" for months, developing a passion for stage acting and excelling in meeting the physical, emotional, and artistic demands of the challenging play.
Despite his success on stage, Morris's goal remained to work in film. He came to America in 1990 with little money and big dreams, but left behind an emerging stage career and a personal struggle. A former girlfriend had secretly left South Africa with his two infant daughters, separating him from his children. Morris began a long struggle to locate the two daughters who had been taken from him.
Hollywood's penchant for casting foreign actors as second-tier villains brought Morris more disappointments, but he triumphed in "American Kickboxer 1" as the villainous Jacques Denard, a relentlessly self-promoting middleweight champ. Morris's performance elevated the film far above Hollywood's usual arena angst sagas.
Before his iconic role in "Kickboxer," Morris demonstrated a talent for comedy in other action-themed movies, notably "Steel Dawn." He played a futuristic henchman who pursues an innocent boy across an apocalyptic desert, where Patrick Swayze waits to save the day.
In the early 1990s, Morris was finally pursuing his dream of being a film actor, but he had not gotten the echo of live applause out of his system. So, in 1994, he returned to New York, focusing on work as an actor in experimental theater and off-Broadway productions. He also became a popular group fitness instructor and personal trainer.
After an agonizing search of 15 years, Morris finally found his daughters Tahnee and Tiffany through the internet, and his reunion with them has inspired him to focus on a return to screen acting with renewed determination.
