Jeff Speakman

Actor, Martial Arts Expert Owner of Kempo Karate 5.0, Las Vegas, Nev.

When Jeff Speakman was a student at Missouri Southern in the early 1980s, he was surprised to learn that his roommate was a black belt in Goju-ryu martial arts.

Having been an athlete for much of his life – a springboard diver in the summer and a gymnast during the school year – Speakman was intrigued enough to follow his roommate to a martial arts session with legendary Joplin teacher Lou Angel, who was also the night sergeant for the Webb City Police Department.

“I asked if he would accept me as a student, and he did,” Speakman said. “As soon as I took that first lesson, I knew I’d be doing it all my life. Eventually I got to a point where Mr. Angel suggested that I move to California to study with Ed Parker, who invented Kempo Karate. I sold my car to pay for the U-Haul, and Mr. Angel wrote me a letter of recommendation. I studied with him from 1983 until Mr. Parker passed away in 1990. The next few years were frustrating, and I saw more and more a staggering incompetence in a vast array of martial artists everywhere. They were not forward-thinking people, and it was clear to me that if I was going to go anywhere, I had to do it on my own. That’s what drove me to venture out and start Kempo Karate 5.0. It has grown incrementally from there.”

Today, Kempo Karate 5.0 has studios in 19 different countries, and Speakman has become well known not only for his fighting style and training, but also for his work in Hollywood both as an actor and a consultant. He starred in the movie “The Perfect Weapon,” which was produced and released by Paramount in 1991. He has also starred in “Escape from Atlanta,” and has worked on a number of television shows over the years. But accolades and successful business aside, Speakman said he continues to love martial arts to this day because of the peaceful routine it brings to his life.

“I think it has to do with a sort of romantic or child-like infatuation with martial arts,” he said. “For me that started with the TV show ‘Kung Fu.’ That’s what got me interested, and then I had a beginning in Joplin and had some opportunities. Sure, I was disappointed in the reality a few times versus the image that I had in my head. But I’ve been able to craft my own world of this and now I can live with the way it is. Most of my world is built around training and teaching – I teach every night, I go to the gym every day. I’m on the floor or the mat doing it almost every day, and a lot of senior trainers don’t usually do that. But that’s my life, and I love it.”

Speakman said that much of his attitude toward training is representative of the kind of instruction he received at Missouri Southern. He said he often thinks back to those years and remembers fondly the relationships he was able to build with instructors and how valuable that has been to him over the years.

“Use those relationships to learn about your field or how to think or how to problem-solve,” he said. “That’s the value of having a liberal arts education. And the biggest lesson I have learned from that time – and throughout my life – is that much of life is about accruing accomplishments. Once you begin your college endeavor, don’t give up until you finish. The world is full of people who quit. The people who face adversity and overcome adversity and see things through to the end are usually the ones who succeed in life.”