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From Hollywood stuntman<br />
to stratospheric fame as an<br />
actor in Vietnam, Johnny Tri<br />
Nguyen has fi nally sprung<br />
into the big time<br />
PEOPLE //<br />
PUNCHING<br />
ABOVE HIS<br />
WORDS NGA HOANG<br />
WEIGHT<br />
Born in Binh Duong,<br />
Vietnam, Johnny Tri<br />
Nguyen left for America<br />
with his parents when<br />
he was nine. He was already<br />
training in martial arts, a skill<br />
that runs through his family’s<br />
blood and was handed down to<br />
him by his father.<br />
But it didn’t go any further<br />
than that: parental expectations<br />
of a stable career weighed<br />
heavily on the young man. He<br />
applied to and was accepted<br />
by several US engineering<br />
schools. Yet when it came to<br />
decision time, he decided to<br />
drop everything and move out<br />
of his parents’ house in search of<br />
the Hollywood dream.<br />
He started out working behind<br />
the scenes doing everything from<br />
lighting to camera work. But,<br />
however busy he was on a fi lm set,<br />
martial arts was never far from his<br />
mind. He nurtured a dream to get<br />
into stunt work so he could marry<br />
his two passions in life: martial<br />
arts and fi lm.<br />
He auditioned his way into<br />
many roles in TV series and<br />
commercials and in 1998 he<br />
appeared in a TV series called<br />
Martial Law. However, his fourminute<br />
appearance could have<br />
easily faded into the background.<br />
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