Kim Kahana obit

Kim Kahana, Stuntman Who Starred in ‘Danger Island’ and Doubled for Charles Bronson, Dies at 94

He played Chongo on the Saturday morning kids show and worked in ‘Cool Hand Luke,’ ‘The Dirty Dozen,’ ‘Planet of the Apes,’ ‘Passenger 57’ and more. 

He was not on the list.

Kim Kahana, the stunt performer, teacher, coordinator and war hero who played Chongo on the kids show Danger Island and doubled for Charles Bronson in several action films, has died. He was 94.

Kahana died Monday of natural causes at his home in Groveland, Florida, his wife, Sandy Kahana, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Kahana, 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds, taught stunts to many thousands of students since the mid-1970s in six-week courses that took place in Chatsworth, California, and Central Florida. Many went on to have thriving careers in show business.

He also had six different black belt degrees — he taught martial arts, too — and worked as a professional bodyguard protecting Hollywood types.

A native of Hawaii, Kahana appeared in his first film as a biker in the Marlon Brando-starring The Wild One (1953) and was an extra in other movies before he realized that stunt performers got paid more than he did.

He learned stunts and stunt coordinating from Yakima Canutt, an honorary Oscar recipient who doubled for Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind (1939) and staged the iconic chariot race in Ben-Hur (1959).

On The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, a Saturday morning kids program that ran on NBC from 1968-70 and then in syndication, Kahana appeared in the show’s live-action serial Danger Island as Chongo, a native who spoke no English but communicated using animal and bird sounds.

“I got a call for an audition for the part,” he recalled in 2012. “Jumped on the table, did a back flip and was hired.”

“Uh-oh, Chongo!” was the catchphrase employed to trigger each adventure on the segments that starred Jan-Michael Vincent and were directed by Richard Donner.

Kahana’s lithe athleticism and stature meant he could double for Stefanie Powers on The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. and Sally Field on The Flying Nun.

His résumé as a stunt performer, coordinator and/or actor included Cool Hand Luke (1967), Planet of the Apes (1968), Patton (1970), Soylent Green (1973), Earthquake (1974), The Killer Elite (1975), Smokey and the Bandit (1977), MacArthur (1977), Good Guys Wear Black (1978), Passenger 57 (1992) and Jeepers Creepers (2001).

“Through hundreds of movies and television shows, Kahana has been beaten, burned, sliced, dropped, shot at, catapulted, hit by cars and exploded, sometimes merely in illusion, sometimes in fact,” the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1987. “He’s been paid $52,000 to drop by means of a cable from a jet helicopter to a hole in the side of a 747.”

That stunt was for Airport 1975 (1974).

Kahana was born on Oct. 16, 1929, in Lanai City, Hawaii. He left school in the third grade, came to the U.S. mainland as a stowaway and at 13 hitchhiked all the way to Boston, where an aunt and uncle lived.

He got to work with bandleader Xavier Cugat and as a knife and fire dancer in a stage show called The Samoan Warriors.

Kahana received two Bronze Stars, a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts for his service during the Korean War. He emerged from a mass grave after an enemy firing squad had left him for dead and was blinded in his left eye from an exploding grenade.

In 1955, he was the lone survivor of a plane crash in Texas that killed the other 32 people on board. “I walked away without a scratch,” he said.

When Kahana drove a friend to an audition on his motorcycle, he was spotted by a casting agent and asked to come inside, leading to his gig on The Wild One.

His career in Hollywood gained steam in the ’60s, working in such films as the Elvis Presley starrers Fun in Acapulco (1963) and Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) and on TV shows including The Time Tunnel, The High Chaparral and Ironside.

When The Brady Bunch went to Hawaii in 1972 during the show’s fourth season, Kahana could be seen doing a fire dance on an episode that also featured Vincent Price. Later, he found regular work on Kung Fu and Nickelodeon GUTS.

He stepped in for Bronson on films including The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Dirty Dozen (1967), The Mechanic (1972), Death Wish (1974), Mr. Majestyk (1974) and Breakout (1975).

Among his students who went on to Hollywood careers were stunt performers Heidi Schnappauf, Tom Place, Billy D. Lucas (double for Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Joanne Lamstein (double for Barbra Streisand).

Kahana was a longtime member of SAG’s Safety Investigating Team, and his incredible life story was told in the 2023 documentary Kim Kahana: The Man Who Changed Hollywood.

He did rigging for a movie just last year and was still teaching stunt work in his final days.

In addition to his wife, whom he married in 2005 — they met on Passenger 57 when she was an extra — survivors include his children, Tony, Kim Jr. and Debbie, and his grandchildren, Michael, Lance, Kalana and Josh, an author. Another son, Rick, died in 2012 of a heart attack at age 51.

All his kids followed dad into the stunt business.

Stunts

I Love You Because

stunt coordinator

Post-production

 

Kim Kahana: The Man who changed Hollywood (2023)

Kim Kahana: The Man who changed Hollywood

action director

2023

 

Grinders (2023)

Grinders

9.3

stunt coordinator

2023

 

Escape (2021)

Escape

Short

action director

2021

 

Fallen Heights (2020)

Fallen Heights

Short

utility stunts

2020

 

Stunt Double (2017)

Stunt Double

Short

stunt coordinator

2017

 

So, You Want to Be in Pictures? (2017)

So, You Want to Be in Pictures?

Short

stunt coordinator

2017

 

Jesse Bradford, Sophia Bush, Jennifer Morrison, and Brandon Routh in Table for Three (2009)

Table for Three

5.4

stunts

2009

 

Voodoo Moon (2006)

Voodoo Moon

4.0

TV Movie

stunt performer

2006

 

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

Jeepers Creepers

6.2

stunt player

2001

 

The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo (1996)

The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo

7.2

TV Series

stunt director

stunt coordinator

1996

3 episodes

 

Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans in Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996)

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

6.5

stunt player (as Kim K. Kahana)

1996

 

Nickelodeon GUTS (1992)

Nickelodeon GUTS

7.5

TV Series

stunt director

stunt coordinator

1992–1993

7 episodes

 

Margaux Hemingway, Andrew Stevens, Joseph Bologna, and Richard Roundtree in Deadly Rivals (1993)

Deadly Rivals

4.2

car stunt sequence director

1993

 

Crystal Bernard in Miracle Child (1993)

Miracle Child

6.0

TV Movie

stunt coordinator

1993

 

John Goodman in Matinee (1993)

Matinee

6.9

stunts

1993

 

Passenger 57 (1992)

Passenger 57

5.9

stunts

1992

 

Jeong-lee Hwang in Street Soldiers (1991)

Street Soldiers

4.5

stunt coordinator

stunts

1991

 

Silent Assassins (1988)

Silent Assassins

4.8

stunt coordinator

1988

 

Exterminator 2 (1984)

Exterminator 2

4.6

stunts

1984

 

The Man Who Wasn't There (1983)

The Man Who Wasn't There

3.8

stunt performer

1983

 

The Thorn Birds (1983)

The Thorn Birds

7.9

TV Mini Series

stunts

1983

 

Modesty Blaise (1982)

Modesty Blaise

5.2

TV Movie

stunt coordinator

1982

 

Under the Rainbow (1981)

Under the Rainbow

5.3

stunts

1981

 

Sally Field, Burt Reynolds, and Jackie Gleason in Smokey and the Bandit II (1980)

Smokey and the Bandit II

5.3

stunts

1980

 

Samurai (1979)

Samurai

6.6

TV Movie

stunts (uncredited)

1979

 

Chuck Norris in Good Guys Wear Black (1978)

Good Guys Wear Black

5.1

stunt double: Soon-Tek Oh

stunts (uncredited)

1978

 

Jack Klugman in Quincy, M.E. (1976)

Quincy, M.E.

7.3

TV Series

action choreography

1977

3 episodes

 

MacArthur (1977)

MacArthur

6.5

stunts (uncredited)

1977

 

Sally Field, Burt Reynolds, and Jackie Gleason in Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Smokey and the Bandit

7.0

stunts (uncredited)

1977

 

Raven De La Croix and Janet Wood in Up! (1976)

Up!

5.8

stunt coordinator

1976

 

The Killer Elite (1975)

The Killer Elite

6.0

stunts (uncredited)

1975

 

Slim Pickens, Bill Bixby, Susan Clark, Tim Conway, Don Knight, Don Knotts, John McGiver, Harry Morgan, Clay O'Brien, and David Wayne in The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975)

The Apple Dumpling Gang

6.4

stunts (uncredited)

1975

 

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975)

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze

5.3

stunts (uncredited)

1975

 

Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders (1974)

Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders

7.2

TV Movie

stunt coordinator

1974

 

Charlton Heston, Victoria Principal, Geneviève Bujold, Ava Gardner, Lorne Greene, George Kennedy, Marjoe Gortner, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Roundtree, and Barry Sullivan in Earthquake (1974)

Earthquake

5.9

stunts (uncredited)

1974

 

Airport 1975 (1974)

Airport 1975

5.7

stunts (uncredited)

1974

 

The Castaway Cowboy (1974)

The Castaway Cowboy

5.7

stunt coordinator (uncredited)

1974

 

Joe Don Baker, Jim Kelly, Burgess Meredith, and Ann Sothern in Golden Needles (1974)

Golden Needles

5.2

stunts (uncredited)

1974

 

Lee Majors in The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)

The Six Million Dollar Man

7.1

TV Series

stunts

1974–1978

 

Soylent Green (1973)

Soylent Green

7.0

stunts (uncredited)

1973

 

Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd (1972)

Joe Kidd

6.4

stunts (uncredited)

1972

 

Charlton Heston in The Omega Man (1971)

The Omega Man

6.4

stunts (uncredited)

1971

 

Patton (1970)

Patton

7.9

stunts (uncredited)

1970

 

Che! (1969)

Che!

4.8

stunts (uncredited)

1969

 

Maurice Evans in Planet of the Apes (1968)

Planet of the Apes

8.0

stunts (uncredited)

1968

 

Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Cool Hand Luke

8.1

stunts (uncredited)

1967

 

Raymond Burr and Barbara Sigel in Ironside (1967)

Ironside

6.9

TV Series

stunts

1967–1975

 

Sally Field in The Flying Nun (1967)

The Flying Nun

6.5

TV Series

stunts

1967–1970

 

Elvis Presley in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966)

Paradise, Hawaiian Style

5.4

stunts (uncredited)

1966

 

Fun in Acapulco (1963)

Fun in Acapulco

5.8

stunts (uncredited)

1963

 

Actor

I Love You Because

Kevin's Uncle

Post-production

 

Melt on This (2021)

Melt on This

4.9

Mr. Kahana

2021

 

I Have No Name - The 1 Million Dollar Production (2005)

I Have No Name - The 1 Million Dollar Production

Short

Airboat driver

2005

 

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

Jeepers Creepers

6.2

Camper Driver

2001

 

Silent Assassins (1988)

Silent Assassins

4.8

Guard in Compond

1988

 

Exterminator 2 (1984)

Exterminator 2

4.6

Bartender

1984

 

Brother, Cry for Me (1976)

Brother, Cry for Me

4.7

Pablo (as Kahana)

1976

 

Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy (1976)

Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy

4.1

Karate Expert

1976

 

The Killer Elite (1975)

The Killer Elite

6.0

Association Guard

1975

 

The Castaway Cowboy (1974)

The Castaway Cowboy

5.7

Oka (as Kahana)

1974

 

Lee Majors in The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)

The Six Million Dollar Man

7.1

TV Series

Prokar

1974

1 episode

 

They Only Kill Their Masters (1972)

They Only Kill Their Masters

6.2

George (uncredited)

1972

 

Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Peter Graves, Peter Lupus, and Greg Morris in Mission: Impossible (1966)

Mission: Impossible

7.9

TV Series

Karate Trainer (uncredited)

1972

1 episode

 

Eve Plumb, Florence Henderson, Susan Olsen, Robert Reed, Ann B. Davis, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland, Maureen McCormick, and Barry Williams in The Brady Bunch (1969)

The Brady Bunch

6.8

TV Series

Fire dancer (uncredited)

1972

1 episode

 

The Krofft Puppets in The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (1968)

The Banana Splits Adventure Hour

7.3

TV Series

Chongo (as Kahana)

1968–1970

10 episodes

 

Michael Parks in Then Came Bronson (1969)

Then Came Bronson

7.9

TV Series

Spare Parts Two (as Kahana)

1970

1 episode

 

Jan-Michael Vincent, Frank Aletter, Rodrigo Arrendondo, Rockne Tarkington, and Ronne Troup in Danger Island (1968)

Danger Island

8.1

TV Series

Chongo (as Kahana)

1968–1969

26 episodes

 

Leif Erickson, Linda Cristal, Henry Darrow, Cameron Mitchell, and Mark Slade in The High Chaparral (1967)

The High Chaparral

7.6

TV Series

Keono (as Kahana)

1969

1 episode

 

Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Cool Hand Luke

8.1

Convict (uncredited)

1967

 

Noel Harrison and Stefanie Powers in The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966)

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.

6.6

TV Series

Fire Dancer (as Kahana)

1967

1 episode

 

The Time Tunnel (1966)

The Time Tunnel

7.5

TV Series

Native (uncredited)

1966

1 episode

 

Gardner McKay in Adventures in Paradise (1959)

Adventures in Paradise

8.2

TV Series

Native (as Kahana)

1960

1 episode

 

Melt on This Music

Melt on This Music

Kim

 

Producer

Bloodline (2022)

Bloodline

Short

co-producer

2022

 

I Have No Name - The 1 Million Dollar Production (2005)

I Have No Name - The 1 Million Dollar Production

Short

executive producer

2005