Mark Dacascos

Who On Earth Is Mark Dacascos? "Asian good looks, charisma and, yes, the ability to kill people using his little toe"

Mark Alan Dacascos was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on 26th February 1964. As his father and stepmother were both martial arts teachers, Mark pursued martial arts as a career for many years, participating in and often winning European, American and international tournaments. Although his first venture into acting was a complete fluke, being grabbed off the street while out walking with his girlfriend, his martial arts skills were to contribute to his initial success in the movies.

Disregarding the film Dim Sum, in which he played Joan Chen's boyfriend but was ultimately cut out of the film, American Samurai was Mark's movie debut. Far from a critical success, American Samurai and the similarly-themed Double Dragon, Kickboxer 5 and Only The Strong were to cement Mark's status as a video store hero. He also struck up a fortunate friendship with director Tibor Takacs, who Mark has worked with on four films to date: Deadly Past, Redline, Sanctuary and Sabotage.

It was not, however, Takacs who was to give Mark Dacascos his long-awaited exposure to a wider audience. With his Asian good looks, charisma and, yes, the ability to kill people using his little toe, Mark was a natural choice to play the hero of the first live-action Manga film, the eponymous Crying Freeman. Directed by Christophe Gans, Crying Freeman had a cinematic release in Europe, but received mixed reviews for its balance of modern day America and Eastern mysticism. Yo Hinomura Freeman was, however, by far the most complex role Mark had attempted, while the action sequences of the film were beyond reproach.

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Mark's next movie to be shown at theatres contained one of his few supporting roles, and it was perhaps fortunate that he appeared unrecognisable, playing Lo-Mai, one of Marlon Brando's creations on The Island Of Dr. Moreau. Far more successful was Drive, where Mark went on the run with American comic actor Kadeem Hardison. A good-humoured action extravaganza which knows its own limits, Drive is now gaining some well-earned respect from an industry which now reveres the martial arts of The Matrix.

On television, Mark followed in the footsteps of Brandon Lee and Vincent Perez, playing Eric Draven in The Crow: Stairway To Heaven, which attempted a more optimistic spin on The Crow series. It gained a solid fanbase but was cancelled after one season, although there are tentative plans for more Dacascos-starring episodes.

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Mark currently lives on Hawaii with his wife, the actress Julie Condra, whom he met on the set of Crying Freeman, and their son Makoalani. His second film with Christophe Gans, Les Pacte des Loups, was the biggest budget French film of 2000 and has been a commercial and critical success in Europe. Under the title The Brotherhood Of The Wolf, it was equally well-received in Britain, and has now been released in the USA. Mark can also be seen in the TV thriller Instinct To Kill and, on DVD, alongside Aaron Kwok and Kadeem Hardison in the unofficial Drive sequel China Strike Force. This year's Dacascos movie hoping for a theatrical release is the disaster film Scorcher, which also stars Lord Of The Rings' John Rhys-Davies and Mark's Redline co-star Rutger Hauer. Later this year, the brotherhood of Mark Dacascos, Christophe Gans and Vincent Cassel will reunite to film The Adventurer, detailing the exploits of French (and fictional) RAF pilot Bob Morane, taking them from Burma to Paris to the exotic climes of, er, London. An intriguing cross between Biggles and Indiana Jones with, inevitably, a fair bit of martial arts thrown in, this sounds like a film we'll be hearing a lot more about, one way or the other.

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Mark Dacascos is an extraordinarily talented performer. While his knowledge of Chinese kung fu has to some extent given him access to many film roles, it has also perhaps limited the thoughts of casting directors who believe Mark to be, for example, another Jean-Claude Van Damme. Fortunately, the range he has showed through the tortured Crying Freeman and comedic influences of Drive have only been exemplified by his ability to carry a television series singlehandedly. Whether Brotherhood Of The Wolf and his other forthcoming films bring him some well-deserved respect as an actor remains to be seen, but Mark has shown through his extensive career that he will always be there, or thereabouts, and most often in a video store near you.

- Lonely Walker

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