Martial-arts film specialist Eric Karson, who directed Chuck Norris in The Octagon and produced the Jean-Claude Van Damme breakout Lionheart, died on 24 August at the age of 86, The Hollywood Reporter reports.
Eric Karson, the filmmaker who directed Chuck Norris in The Octagon and produced the Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle Lionheart, has died at the age of 86. According to The Hollywood Reporter, which cited his brother Gil Karson, he died on 24 August of natural causes while in hospice care in Henderson, Nevada. The news became public on 30 October.
Karson made his feature directorial debut with The Octagon (1980), a ninja-era action film in which Norris plays Scott James, a retired karate champion who takes on a band of assassins led by his estranged foster brother. He went on to direct Van Damme in Black Eagle (1988) and produced Lionheart (1990), directed by Sheldon Lettich, in which Van Damme plays a French Foreign Legion deserter who becomes a street fighter; the role helped establish him as a leading man in the United States. Karson also directed French kickboxer Olivier Gruner in his first film, Angel Town (1990), and produced Gruner's second, Nemesis (1992); Gruner regarded him as a mentor. His other credits include the 1986 action film Opposing Force, starring Lisa Eichhorn and Tom Skerritt.
Born in Phoenix on 5 March 1940, Karson was the son of television writer Lee Karson, creator of the 1956-59 series The Gale Storm Show. He began as an actor, graduated from Cal State Northridge and started directing on commercials and documentaries in Australia, later working as a vice president at the Los Angeles production house The Peterson Co. before his breakthrough with The Octagon. He is survived by his wife of two decades, Tara; his brother Gil, a musician and film editor; his siblings Lisa and Michael; and several nieces and a nephew.
